Tower Hill Wildlife Reserve, Game reserve in Victoria, Australia.
Tower Hill Wildlife Reserve spans 614 hectares around a dormant volcanic crater with wetlands, grasslands, and open woodlands hosting native animals. The site contains walking trails, picnic areas, and a visitor center designed by Robin Boyd where you can spot koalas, wallabies, and many bird species.
The volcanic site dates back over 34,000 years and holds Aboriginal artifacts embedded in ash layers showing indigenous presence during eruption times. After severe damage from farming and quarrying, the site underwent complete restoration in 1961 and transformed into a thriving ecosystem with reintroduced native wildlife.
The Koroitgundidj, the local Aboriginal people, used the crater as a food source, and their descendants keep ties to it. Since 2002 the Worn Gundidj Aboriginal Cooperative, staffed partly by those descendants, has run the Visitor Centre with Parks Victoria, offering displays and guided bushwalking tours on the site's geology, plants, animals and heritage. Visits on these tours doubled in the three years before November 2019.
Access the site via marked walking trails suitable for different ability levels with viewpoints for spotting animals. Early morning visits offer the best chance to see wildlife active, and the grounds feature both open areas and shaded woodland sections depending on your preference.
The 1969 visitor centre was designed by Melbourne architect Robin Boyd, who called it "a complete, one-piece, yet seemingly organic growth". Its circular form and sloping roof echo the volcanic hilltops, and it is partly built of local limestone. The Worn Gundidj Aboriginal Cooperative has run it with Parks Victoria since 2002.
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