Victorian Scout Caving Team at Mount Eccles National Park

Mount Napier, Newer Volcanics Province, Victoria, Australia at Volcano World - The Web's Premier Source of Volcano Info.
 

Mount Eccles National Park information at the "Great Ocean Road" site.
 

Mt Eccles, Mt Napier, Mt Rouse, Byaduk Caves and the Lava Tumuli (blisters) are all part of the Volcanoes Discovery Trail encompassing western Victoria and south-east South Australia.
 

Budj Bim National Heritage Landscape

More than 30 000 years ago the ground in this area rumbled and rolled as Aboriginal people nearby witnessed Budj Bim, an important creation being from the Dreamtime reveal himself in the landscape. The volcano that today we call Mount Eccles, is his forehead and the scoria are his teeth.

Budj Bim is the source of the Tyrendarra lava flow, which extends from Mount Eccles over 50km to the west and south and which is central to the history of these local Aboriginal people, known as the Gunditjmara.
 

The Great Plains Crash - Geology and Geomorphology of Victoria's Grassland Regions by Neville Rosengren.

From the proceedings of the Grassland Conference, October 2-3, 1992

AUSTRALIA: October 4, 2004, MELBOURNE - Lusty Koalas in southern Australia are going to be put on the pill to stop them breeding too quickly and putting too much strain on their eucalyptus-forest home.

Up to 2,000 female koalas in Victoria state's Mount Eccles National Park are going to be implanted with a slow-release hormone that acts as a contraceptive.
"It is the same type of contraceptive that is used by human females around the world," said project manager Ian Walker. "But the tricky part about this program is catching the koalas and getting them out of the trees."
The hormone is contained in a tube the size of a match stick and is inserted beneath the koala's skin, between its shoulders.
The furry marsupials can live for up to 18 years and may produce up to 11 offspring. A symbol of Australia, Koalas are protected but the eucalyptus trees they depend on for food are not.
"Victoria has the largest number of wild koalas of all states in Australia, so that means we need a plan that protects the species as well as the environment it depends on," said Victoria Environment Minister John Thwaites.
There are about 100,000 koalas in Australia, down from seven to 10 million at the time of European settlement in 1788. In the 1920s three million were shot for their fur.
Trials have shown the hormone implants, an alternative to relocation or surgical sterilisation, have prevented conception for six years.
 

Talk To Your Koala About Teenage Pregnancy

SYDNEY, Australia - Wildlife officers plan to implant contraceptive devices in thousands of female koalas at a park that is overpopulated with the animals, who are eating away the tree canopy, a report said Wednesday.
The koalas will have a small plastic tube inserted under their skin. The device will slowly release hormones similar to those found in the human contraceptive pill, said Sally Troy, the research head of Parks Victoria, the agency that manages the affected Mount Eccles National Park in Victoria state.
It is the first time such a scheme has been carried out on a large scale, she said.
“There's up to 10,000 koalas in the park and another couple of thousand koalas around (the) park, so they are continuing to increase and we know that more than 70 percent of the trees at Mount Eccles have got less than half of their canopy already,” Troy was cited as saying by Australian Broadcasting Corp.'s Web site.
No other details of the program were included in the report. Attempts to confirm it with Parks Victoria were unsuccessful because their offices had closed for the day.
The park is about 190 miles west of Melbourne.