Sherbrooke Forest, Wet sclerophyll forest in Victoria, Australia
Sherbrooke Forest is a wet sclerophyll forest within the Dandenong Ranges National Park in Victoria, Australia, dominated by tall Mountain Ash trees that form a high closed canopy. Below the canopy, dense tree ferns, climbers, and low shrubs cover the ground in layers that stay moist throughout the year.
Sherbrooke Forest lies within the territory of the Wurundjeri clan of the Woiwurrung people of the Kulin nation. It was logged from the mid-19th century until 1930, then gazetted as a park in 1958. In 1987 it was merged with Doongalla Reserve and Ferntree Gully National Park to form the 32.15 km2 Dandenong Ranges National Park.
Sherbrooke Forest is a long-standing site for studying and conserving the superb lyrebird. In the 1930s Raymond Littlejohns recorded lyrebird songs here, and Konstantin Halafoff later analysed the birds' calls. Visitors today walk the trails listening for these calls among the tree ferns.
Several marked walking trails cross the forest and connect shaded picnic areas along the way. Visiting on a weekday tends to be quieter, as the forest can get busy on weekends and during school holidays.
The lyrebirds found here can reproduce not just other bird calls but also sounds like chainsaws or camera shutters they have previously heard nearby. Recordings made in this forest have been used in scientific studies on animal mimicry.
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