Brataualung Nature Trail

Cody Gully Walk

Ophir Hill Walk

Foster is one of the very few Australian country towns to boast an area of magnificent native bushland right in its own backyard.

Several hectares of broad-and narrow-leaved peppermint gum forest with an understorey of banksias, hakeas, melaleucas, ferns, orchids and the occasional blackwood may be found on Foster’s northern boundary.

Between McDonald Street and the South Gippsland Highway is a lush profusion of what has been described by district naturalists as, "remarkably indigenous vegetation, with not many introduced plants or weeds to be seen."

Completely cleared during the Stockyard Creek goldrushes of the 18th century, the area has since regrown from seeds that were either already mixed in with the soil by insects such as jacky jumper ants, or landed on the ground during the felling process.

Once again the forest is home to many native creatures including wallabies, ringtail and pygmy possums, wombats, and antechinus or native mice.

Birdlife to be found there includes grey fantails, pardalottes, crimson rosellas, white-browed scrub wrens, grey thrushes and golden whistlers.

The 2.1-kilometre Brataualung Nature Trail wends its way through the area and its gravelled paths and timber bridges are perfect for exploring the natural wonders to be found there.

The start of the trail is marked by a routed timber sign located near the intersection of McDonald and Power Streets in Foster.

In a moment the walker is surrounded by dense stands of naturally fire-resistant paperbarks.

Look on the ground for coral lichens, hibertias and pouched coral ferns, and further along the track for young banksias and prickly tea-trees.

Soon the walker comes to the start of the one-kilometre Cody Gully Walk, which leads through a typical South Gippsland moist gully ecosystem, complete with flax lilies and the unusual tiny trigger plant.

Halfway along, the walker may choose to follow the 0.9 kilometre Ophir Hill Walk loop track, that takes the walker past gums hung with clematis and cherry ballart as well as rejuvenating rainforest species such as tree-ferns and pittosporum.

Weeds like bracken and wiregrass have taken hold in places where fire has gone through in recent years, an event that alters the natural balance of the forest by allowing more light to penetrate than otherwise would occur.

Evidence of the mullock heaps and shafts left over from the gold mining days may still be seen on Ophir Hill.

Walkers return to continue the rest of the Cody Gully Walk, where necklace ferns, hard water ferns, native fireweed, Christmas bush and elderberry panax thrive.

During the walk glimpses of houses can be seen through the outer edges of the forest, reminding the walker just how close to a natural treasure Foster really is.

The Brataualung Trail area is believed to be protected in perpetuity by a management plan prepared by the Department of Natural Resources and Environment.

The thick damp forest environment is paradoxically one of the best defences Foster has against fire, because flames find it difficult to take hold there as the wet conditions cause any trees that fall to rot away.

The fire risk has been increased however at the northern edges of the bushland where unprincipled people have cut down trees for firewood, thinning the forest canopy, drying out understorey plants and encouraging more flammable, non-indigenous plants to enter.

Local people and visitors alike will find themselves spellbound in a magical native forest only minutes from anywhere in Foster.