This event is part of
Bus tour of French Island, departing Stony Point ferry. Tour includes local flora and fauna (particularly birds) watching, history of the island, and wind turbine visit. BYO lunch. Devonshire tea served.
COST
Tour: $27, plus:
Ferry: Adult $24.00 (Mon-Fri) ; Concession: $15.00 (Mon-Fri) Vic Seniors Card Holders FREE Sat & Sun.
Book in advance through Lois Ayres, tour operator:
phone 03 59801241
ITINERARY
10:15 am: Depart from Stony Point on the Inter Island Ferries, an 92-passenger catamaran vessel.
Be met at Tankerton Jetty by Lois Airs (A 4th generation Islander) with a 29 or 45 seater Bus.
A walk to view bushland & wading birds or the black-shouldered kite hawk along the coastal marsh & mangroves.
We will travel along Coast Road arriving at Chilcott Rocks, a High Tide roosting area then continuing on to Bullock Swamp. Then we will come back along Coast Rd, as we travel we’ll watch out for Koalas and Echidnas, Lois will talk about the potoroo.
12:00-1:00pm: We will then return to the National Park’s campsite, Fairhaven. This will be our lunch stop if the weather is fine, this area has Toilets. If the weather is not then we will have lunch at the Community Hall.
Bus transport takes you to the General Store where you will find local craft and produce for sale.
Along Ten Chain Road we will have a talk on Llamas & Alpacas, French Island Olive Grove and the French Island Fruit Farm. We will then travel past Perseverance Primary School where the 15 students enjoy a busy and varied curriculum and also use up to the minute technology with networked computers and the Internet.
A stop to see the barge, the Island’s vehicle transport, with a possible sighting of the sea eagle.
Devonshire tea will be served at the Bayview Chicory Kiln, (the bus drivers farm). There will be a history talk on the Island’s past chicory industry with questions answered and time to view old photos, farm machinery, an 1870’s salt vat and relics from the former McLeod Prison Farm.
Here you see how a remote power system works with the wind turbine charging a battery bank.
There will be information about the Island’s flora and fauna and farming community of 70 people and its “untouched quality”.
4:30 pm: Ferry departs from Tankerton Jetty.