Date of Walk: 19/04/2009
Length (km’s): 1.5 km’s
Time (hrs/min): 45 min
Grade: Easy / Moderate
Return / Circuit / One-Way / Partial Circuit: Circuit
Region: South-West Victoria
Park: Great Otway National Park
Closest Town: Lavers Hill (4 km’s)
Ascent: Unknown
Maximum Height: Unknown
Map: Not needed (once you find the carpark, you can’t go wrong)
Grade: Easy / Moderate
Return / Circuit / One-Way / Partial Circuit: Circuit
Region: South-West Victoria
Park: Great Otway National Park
Closest Town: Lavers Hill (4 km’s)
Ascent: Unknown
Maximum Height: Unknown
Map: Not needed (once you find the carpark, you can’t go wrong)
Further Details / Source(s): I found out about this walk on ParkWeb. General information on the area is also available at ParkWeb’s Great Otway National Park page.
Getting There: From Lavers Hill, follow the Great Ocean Road west for 3 km’s to the signed turn-off to Melba Gully (Melba Gully Road). Turn left and follow the road another kilometre to the Melba Gully picnic ground.
Getting There: From Lavers Hill, follow the Great Ocean Road west for 3 km’s to the signed turn-off to Melba Gully (Melba Gully Road). Turn left and follow the road another kilometre to the Melba Gully picnic ground.
I found the map on the ParkWeb Park Note: Great Otway National Park and Otway Forest Park – Kennett River to Princetown very helpful but you may not need it if using my directions.
Comments: We weren’t too sure what this walk was going to be like when we got to the picnic ground as there are large cleared areas and lots of weeds everywhere, but as we got further along the track the weeds subsided and the usual cool fern gully vegetation became more prominent. As it turned out, we had stumbled across another amazing part of the Otways!
The walk crosses the Johanna River which features the beautiful “Anne’s Cascade” (see photos below). The other highlight of the walk is “Big Tree”, an Otways Messmate measuring 27 metres around the base! Apparently it’s around 300 years old and has been ravaged by fire several times, yet it’s still going strong!
Apparently this spot is a good one to visit at night in order to see glow-worms but unfortunately we weren’t up to this. Feel free to leave a comment below if this is something you’ve experienced. Even if you’re visiting in the daylight hours, I highly recommend this spot… You won’t be dissapointed!
The Johanna River 
Anne’s Cascade (or part of it anyway)
“Big Tree” (NOTE: Someone has left a message inthe comments to say that the tree has sadly come down)
Hi Leigh,
Thanks for telling your story. It is very sad indeed.
All the best
Neil
I am a 58 year old man who grew up on Colac and I visited this wonderful tree when I was much younger. We had some German exchange students staying with us and I wanted them to see something really spectacular to remember when they returned, so we made a 350km journey to see this magnificent Messmate. I have waited some 35 years to go there again, and I cried when I found it had crashed to earth. It was devastating to me personally, as it was the last one of this size in existence. I felt a genuine tragedy had occurred when this tree went – still very sad about this after many weeks. Melba Gully is no more….
Leigh Hammerton Murtoa
Oh noooo that's a bit sad! Thanks for letting me know mate… I'll update the info above. I'm sure it's still a beautiful spot anyway.
I walked this trail two days ago – Big Tree is now sadly lying on her side, rotting away.