Nangak Tamboree Wildlife Sanctuary — Attraction in Melbourne

I’ve been volunteering at NTWS on and off for 2 years. I’ve been lucky enough to work through 3 different areas in the Sanctuary, developing myriad different skills, and have been able to continue off and on throughout uni stresses, work changes, and life disruptions! This is thanks to the lovely people at NTWS and their flexibility and dedication to their vollies. I started my volunteering in the plant nursery. I got to improve my plant identification skills – especially at different life stages which is handy – and gained many back-of-house nursery production skills (pricking out, sowing and cleaning seed, taking and processing cuttings, etc). Towards the end of my degree, I started in land management. This was instrumental in my plant ID skills as I quickly learnt many common weed species and how to distinguish them from similar natives, and started to build confidence in this area. I now volunteer in the monitoring crew where we undertake a range of tasks on alternating weeks: nest box monitoring, fence checks, camera trap monitoring, fish surveys, fungi surveys, water testing, and water bug identification. From a botany-heavy start, this monitoring has allowed me venture into zoological and fungal directions, and I’ve loved being able to cultivate a wider knowledge of life in the Sanctuary. Seeing a family of cute little sugar gliders on the regular is always a bonus! Overall, it’s been a great way to keep connected to my field of study: volunteering reinforces what I learn in uni, and what I learn in uni I can bring to volunteering. I have really appreciated the opportunity to work through these three different areas that provided a huge range of skills I can now build on going forward...

A group of 16 of us visited the Nangak Tamboree Wildlife Sanctuary as part of a community event to engage LGBTQIA+ identifying people in Indigenous plants and animals, and they're importance to our surroundings. We were so thrilled to have Berenice as our tour guide. She was incredibly knowledgeable, engaging, and made the whole experience so enjoyable. It is so lucky that this space is available so close to the city, and I would not hesitate in recommending a tour to anyone! I'll definitely be back for a twilight tour to see some of those famous sugar gliders! Thank you...

The staff Joshua was very knowledgeable and explained the Aboriginal plants they are conserving and planting for public use to buy. He was very kind in explaining to my sons about the the equipment used by them to conserve the environment.

Also garden has a lot of birds and we were treated with a surprise of seeing a white laughing cockatoo standing on a branch.

A real oasis for bush walking. No need to go to far such as Dandenong mountain or Kinglake to have...