Love love love this place! It's really for the animals, and it shows! No yelling, running, etc., or…read moreyou have to leave. The purchase includes a nice size bag of food for the Wallabies, roos, and emus. Follow the rules and how you, and you'll be fine. It was a dream I didn't know I had, and one of the most amazing experiences of my life.

What a great place to visit, came here with a tour group to get up and close with all sorts of…read moreanimals. Kangaroos, Koalas, Wallabys and Tasmanian devils! Really loved feeding the kangaroos... so damn cute! So great seeing that these animals all have lot's of space to get around and make themselves at home. Watch where you step :) So people complain about the price but it was worth it, they are treated so well here and it shows. Great place to get hands on with so many animals and lot's of information about them too.

What a GREAT experience. My husband and I both enjoyed the whole thing…read more Very nice, clean, and well-maintained eudcational area, restaurant, and gift shop inside as well as boardwalks and beachfront with plenty of room for viewing. The food at the restaurant was fair quality but took a little while to be made due to the number of people there at the same time for the upcoming viewing. They do NOT accept cash at this park, tho. I'd definitely recommend purchasing tickets ahead of time. I'd also recommend bringing a blanket and or heavy jacket as it gets VERY cold once the sun goes down. If it rains before your viewing and you've paid to be in the seated viewing area.... there won't be a way to dry the seats off either. No photography is allowed after the penguins begin to come ashore. The park staff are QUITE RUDE and will call you out if you even pull your phone out of your pocket. I'd advise just keep it on silent and in your pocket. There is an option to down load pics that the staff has taken via QR code. You may also be able to sneak a few on the way back to the car along the boardwalk which IS lit up enough to get a few decent shots.

The penguin parade itself was underwhelming - as only a few at a time. Definitely bring binoculars…read moreor you are watching at a great distance. There are plenty of viewing areas above the beach in the dunes of the nesting areas where you can see them up close. We were lucky as there were also molting penguins - lose all their feathers and star over in addition to those nesting.

A wonderful hidden little strip of nature. A wonderful respite from the hustle and bustle of…read moresuburbia, parks like this are largely underappreciated. Brought the wife and kids down here a couple months ago for some live jazz, and whenever we visit friends nearby we picnic with their family here too. Today I brought my laptop and got some work done in the shade, listening to the water fowl play, and the other murmurings of a park. A pleasant reminder that I should share my love of this special place with my fellow suburbanites. Pros: Proximity to life, great walks around the lake, wildlife, great for sunset/sunrise walks. Cons: No Swimming thanks to pollution.

It is amazing how Melbourne's suburbia hides away little pockets of nature. You can be driving…read morealong with the trees on the nature strip and eventually you realise the houses themselves are gone, replaced by the sprawling expanse of a sanctuary. Blackburn Lake Sanctuary is on of these many magical places. Tucked in from the train line and busier surrounding roads, it is near a number of schools, so it's no surprise their field trips will include walking through the park and looking for wildlife. With open park area and play ground for kids, there is perfect space for picnics and events. Community music events - like a jazz festival in February - will often set up shop here for people to attend and listen for free. And after you've stuffed yourself with nonna's best home cooking and cleaned up the paper plates, what better way to burn it all off than with a walk around the lake itself. Not so big that the whole family couldn't do it, there are several smaller paths leading to different places outside the realms of the park. One school actually backs on it, as does a nearby church. All manner of wildlife can be found - ducks, birds, even a fox once or twice. Don't swim - apparently in the 50s they used to, but sadly water pollution has turned that idea quite sour. However, sitting by the water and watching life go by has never looked better.

Pretty good local park. The playground, BMX track, and picnic area attracts a lot of families…read more The football field is used for organized sports most weekends. The best feature of this park is that it connects the fully separated bicycle paths that link the two primary schools, the train station, and the supermarket.

This park has not come up in my radar before despite its location, and what a shame that was!!!…read moreI managed to visit on a day off and sunny winter Melbourne day with the dog. Amazing great space and there's access to the water for the water loving dogs to dip in and out as they please. There's a few different sport zones ( soccer field, golf ) so you have to be mindful of visiting when there's a sporting event/ match. Otherwise it's a free run for the dog. There is also a no dog golf zone so watch out for stray golf balls of around this zone. Bike path runs next to the river and lots of benches to sit on. Love it and I will definitely visit more!

A firm favourite with our dogs! A truly enjoyable experience for all. Our dogs have many regular…read morefriends who visit, from Cavaliers to English Mastiff's! All dog owners are respectful.

I wasn't sure what to expect as I thought you may or may not see koalas, but it was one of the best…read moreinteractions we had with koalas. We started in the info center to review the displays and educated ourselves about koalas. They have an elevated boardwalk which allows you to be 'in the trees' with the koalas. Their koalas are rescued from various situations and while they are free to come and go, they seem to stay because they have a great gig. We saw koalas sleeping, eating, walking, climbing,... given they sleep 20 hours of the day, I was so excited that we saw them so active. They had a wonderful volunteer that ensured the visitors stayed a safe distance from the koalas but also helped us learn more about these super cute animals. We also walked the nature trail and saw a ton of birds and several wallabies. The gift shop had several great options and we bought a cute book for our granddaughter. Great stop.

Such an exciting interesting place to visit! Our tour brought us here for the afternoon to walk…read morethrough the area and experience the trails, trees and see some koalas in their home. Learned a lot here, all the money raised goes into research, environment and educational programs. Staff is super invested and wants to be here helping these super cool animals. Walking on the pathway looking for these adorable koalas was a lot of fun. They were east to spot, but majority of the time they were sleeping or moving at their slow pace enjoying life. They are well taken care of here.

An ancient gem. Ahuge, vast old volcano /parkland hidden off the Calder Hwy…read more You drive in through the gates and the noise of the highway disappears and is replaced by bush sounds. Peace and quiet are valued and other park attendees respect each others' space and individual nature experiences. Walkers, joggers, hikers, day trippers, locals; all types are here and hanging out. Those that walk down the steep mountainside are greatly rewarded with a view of The Pipes. An old volcano stood here eons ago. Soo Ancient this place is We are the guardians' of this sacred place, treat it as you would your own home. Soo much sacred geometry to view here, for those that can see. I'm lucky to live within 5kms and get to frequent this place. I can see how some people might get bored here but you have to explore every rock, path, grass mound, butterfly, organ pipe, river, etc with a open, childlike engry to get the most out of this place. I often see wallabies and kangaroos; side note: I hit a roo on my way out one night, driving at low speed at sunset. Roo was fine. Car had acouple scratches. Roo was jumping in a pack then randonly darted in the direction of the road and hit me. Best be careful of the inhabitants and respect their home. Cows grazing on the other side of the mountain Beautiful river flowing down the bottom. Snakes are around, my friend has seen them but I sadly have not. Take sandwiches, crackers, water, snacks for lunch or dinner down by the river or in the picnic area. Take a bag to take your rubbish home, no bins. Bascic, clean bathrooms located in the carpark. Free parking. No attendants work here, its unmanned. Police drive around occasionally. Enjoy the place and remember, you are where you are suppose to be, trust the process & explore

This national park is right off the Calder Freeway, and with all those fast cars, make sure you…read moredrive carefully. As we rode on up, we saw a truck just outside the gate with a official looking man and thought - you've got to be kidding me, as he was closing the entrance gate. Asking him, he said the gates close at 4:30 but we can park outside and he can't stop us from going inside. Lesson learned and we did just that. We followed the pavement leading to the actual car park, then followed the track downwards into the valley. There were a few different walks, 80m to the right are the Organ Pipes. 240m to the left are the Rosette rock and the Tesselated pavement formation. To any one who knows rock talk formation stuff, this can be a learning experience. I, on the other hand, read some of the info boards and thought okay cool, this looks different, and how weird. I'm sure there is more to be appreciated here. Anyways, there are a ton of picnic benches here, so come for a picnic and a walk. Because I was here after closing times, it was the time of day that rock wallabies and kangaroos were out and about. And that was by far cooler than the cool rock formations I saw, it added to my time here. For a small park, its good for a drive up and a few hours of sunlight to picnic in and see some different formations. This park really defines the Aussie landscape, hilly, rocky, dry with kangaroos. Oh and its opposing the Calder Freeway, so even with being guarded by hills, you still get the noise factor from the cars.

I'm glad that I discovered this place while working out where I wanted to go while wandering around…read moreFrankston because these gardens turned out to be really quite delightful. In fact, it is quite surprising to find such a lovely place in an outer suburb, but here it is. Then again, I do notice that is adjoins the Frankston hospital, so there is probably a reason as to why these gardens exist. Still, they are definitely worth checking out, or even having a picnic in.