Germein Reserve

What the South East used to look like

More than 95 per cent of the lower South East's native vegetation has been cleared and most of its wetlands drained, which makes Germein Reserve precious: 55 hectares of remnant swamp and scrub on the edge of Port MacDonnell, looked after by local Landcare volunteers since 1978.

A network of five easy trails between 750 metres and 1.25 kilometres threads the reserve, including a scenic boardwalk over the wetland and a wheelchair-friendly section. Trailheads sit at Lions Park, Clarke Park and Dingley Dell, so you can link a walk here with the cottage of poet Adam Lindsay Gordon next door.

The reserve is alive with sound: striped marsh frogs and spotted grass frogs in the ponds, wrens and honeyeaters in the scrub, swans, spoonbills and sandpipers on the water — and, in winter, the occasional critically endangered orange-bellied parrot. The reserve is named for Ben Germein, the first keeper of the Cape Northumberland lighthouse, a fitting tribute in a town built on its relationship with the sea.