Victoria's rare box-ironbark forest sanctuary in the Central Highlands
Heathcote-Graytown National Park
Heathcote-Graytown National Park is a protected area located in the North Central region of Victoria, Australia, approximately 150 kilometers north of Melbourne. The park encompasses 12,833 hectares of diverse terrain within the Great Dividing Range, situated immediately adjacent to the town of Heathcote. This relatively young national park was established in 2002 primarily to conserve Victoria's increasingly rare box-ironbark forests, which represent one of the state's most threatened ecological communities. The park forms part of a larger network of protected areas that includes adjacent state forests such as the McIvor Ranges State Forest, creating an important corridor for wildlife movement through the Central Highlands region.
The park's ecological significance extends well beyond its borders, as it lies entirely within the Rushworth Box-Ironbark Region, designated as an Important Bird Area by BirdLife International. This recognition reflects the area's particular importance for several threatened woodland bird species, most notably the swift parrot, which migrates to southeastern Australia from Tasmania during the breeding season. The combination of remnant forest vegetation, varied topography, and proximity to watercourses creates habitat conditions that support a remarkable diversity of native wildlife despite the surrounding agricultural and mining landscape.
Heathcote-Graytown National Park represents a deliberate conservation outcome for Victoria, proclaimed specifically to address the historical decline of box-ironbark forests across the state. These forests once covered extensive areas of central and northern Victoria but have been significantly reduced by land clearing, timber harvesting, and changed fire regimes. The park protects representative examples of this forest type and provides refuge for species that depend on mature woodland habitats for foraging, nesting, and breeding.
