Get curious about tall forests

Meet the shyest members of your Victorian family here, in the tall forests. Deep in the Mountain Ash groves of Yarra Ranges National Park, look for the hollows where the Leadbeater’s Possum lives. They eluded us so thoroughly and for so long that they were once considered extinct. Now, we know they make their homes in the tallest forest trees in the world. These fairy possums who spend their night flitting from branch to branch can only live in trees that are more than 190 years old – their fleeting, precious lives kept safe by ancient guardians.

In alpine clearings where wetlands glow under night skies thick with stars, froglets grunt, chirrup and croak. In the Great Otway National Park, where endangered species cluster in a special refuge, lyrebirds call from the scrub thickets along forest paths and potoroos scamper through the undergrowth. Rare plants and fungi adorn the stands of mountain ash and shining gums, lighting up the understory with brilliant colours and intoxicating scents. We share our forests with all kinds of kin, from the mighty to the microscopic. Come and meet them.