Don’t be fooled by the sand dunes! The area where they meet the swamps (Mellor Swamp) at the Painkalac Estuary is a vital refuge for a surprising cast of characters. This critical habitat shelters a number of threatened marsupials, rodents, and birds protected under the EPBC Act (Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999).
Read on to discover the fascinating creatures that call this unique ecosystem home.
Swamp Antechinus (threatened species)
Swamp Antechinus
The Swamp Antechinus Antechinus minimus is a small carnivorous marsupial that eats invertebrates dug from the topsoil and litter and lives in dry grass nests in shallow burrows. It has a head to body length of 95-140mm with a tail length 70% of the head to body length.
Swamp Antechinus habitat is typically wet heath, heathy woodland, sedgeland and dense tussock grassland with a high percentage of understorey cover. Mating occurs during May – July. Females give birth July-August. Males die within a few weeks after mating.
In 2023, Swamp Antechinus were seen in traps and survey cameras in Mellors Swamp and at Lot 2, 101 Bambra Road revegetation site. In addition, eight dead males were found in July 2023 showing evidence of breeding. Three Swamp Antechinus in December 2023 and six Swamp Antechinus were trapped, weighed, sexed and released in May 2024 by the Geelong Field Naturalists, consistent with a healthy population in Mellors Swamp. Based on weight, the Swamp Antechinus trapped in May were all in good condition.
Major threats to the Swamp Antechinus are associated with habitat loss and fragmentation of habitat.
Southern Brown Bandicoot (threatened species)
Southern Brown Bandicoot
The Southern Brown Bandicoot Isoodon obesulus is a medium sized ground dwelling marsupial with a long tapering snout, a naked nose, a compact body and a short tail. They have an average body length of 33 cm for males and 30 cm for females, with an average tail length of 11.3 and 12.4 cm for females and males respectively. The pouch in females opens to the rear, and contains eight teats arranged in a partial circle.
By day, the Southern Brown Bandicoot sleeps in a nest made from grasses and other plant material, and at night emerges to feed on a variety of insects, earthworms, fungi, fruits and other plants, often digging distinctive cone-shaped holes.
The Southern Brown Bandicoot can also be occasionally seen on the cliff top walk at Aireys Inlet as seen in this video.
The distribution of the Southern Brown Bandicoot has decreased significantly since European settlement mainly as a result of vegetation clearing, introduced foxes and cats, and changes to the frequency of fires.
Photo by John O’Neill
Painkalac Resource Repository
Explore the links below to learn about the importance, complexity and wonder of the Painkalac Valley – from the source to the sea:
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Broad-toothed Rat (threatened species)
Broad-toothed Rat
The Broad-toothed Rat Mastacomys fuscus is a terrestrial (non-climbing) and mostly nocturnal rodent which as its name implies, has wide incisors and molar teeth.
The Broad-toothed Rat is a specialist herbivore which feeds on the stem, leaves and seeds of sedges and grasses and especially likes eating grasses in the Poa genus. It’s poo, or scat is a very distinctive vivid green making it unmistakable and it can pump put up to 400 scat pellets a day! Click here to view the colour of the scat!
Photo by David Paul CC BY
Long-nosed Bandicoot
Long-nosed Bandicoot
The long-nosed bandicoot Perameles nasuta, a marsupial around 40 centimetres long, it is sandy- or grey-brown with a long snouty nose. Omnivorous, it forages for invertebrates, fungi and plants at night. The Long-nosed Bandicoot has a high-pitched squeak when disturbed
Invertebrates make up most of the diet year-round, with spiders, caterpillars, leaves and seeds more common food items in summer and cicada larvae, blades of grass, bracts (tiny true leaves) of wattles, and underground items such as roots and fungi eaten more in winter. Long-nosed bandicoots spend much of their time digging, and often leave characteristic conical holes in the ground where they have foraged looking for grubs in the soil.
Photo by JJ Harrison (CC BY)
Bush Rat
Bush Rat
The best way to tell the difference between a native Bush Rat Rattus fuscipes and an introduced Black Rat Rattus rattus is to have a look at the tail and the body length. Native Bush Rats have a tail shorter than their body length and round ears. Introduced rats have a tail longer than their body length with little hair on their tails. Bush Rats are rarely seen climbing so if you see a rat climbing then it is more likely to be a Black Rat.
Bush Rats are rarely seen due to dense habitat in which they live, and their shy and solitary nature. They are nocturnal and shelter during the day in short burrows or grass-lined nests under logs or rocks. They are territorial, but during spring and summer time travel great distances to forage and mate, with males covering distances of up to a kilometre each night.
In the warmer months Bush Rats consume primarily seeds, arthropods and fruit, and individuals have been observed feeding on nectar without damaging the blossoms. During the cooler months their diet consists more of fungi and fibrous plant material.
Photo by JJ Harrison (CC BY)
Swamp Rat
Swamp Rat
The Swamp Rat Rattus lutreolus grows to have a body length of approximately 160 millimetres with a tail length of approximately 110 mm.
The rats will form tunnels through the vegetation through which they can move. Their diet is vegetarian; consisting of reeds, seeds, and swamp grass stems. During the summer months, the species will increase its intake of insects as well as fungi; however, during spring months the rats switch to eating an increased amount of seeds due to their abundance and possible nutritional value in breeding season.
Behaviour is partly nocturnal and diurnal so it is active during the day and at night. It is thought that the species does not collect the sufficient amount of food throughout the night and must also collect vegetation during the day.
15 Swamp Rats in December 2023 were trapped and released by the Geelong Field Naturalists at Mellors Swamp while 3 Swamp Rats in December 2023 and one in May 2024 were captured as part of the same exercise.
Swamp Rats are close relatives of the Bush Rat. Both are native to Australia where they have been present for about 1 million years.
Rufous Bristlebird (threatened species)
Rufous Bristlebird
The Rufous Bristlebird is a small ground-dwelling bird which can be observed running or flying short distances whilst darting in and out of moderately dense understory in which it shelters and feeds.
The Surf Coast is one of the last places in the world you will be able to find the rare and threatened Rufous Bristlebird and we are very lucky to have this gorgeous little creature call our coast home!
The Rufous Bristlebird Dasyornis broadbenti predominately feeds off seeds and small ground-dwelling invertebrates. Usually, they search for food off the ground; however, they also forage amongst leaf litter or in short shrubs whilst collecting insects or grubs
Because they are ground-dwelling birds, they are prone to predation by cats and foxes.
Listen to the song of the Rufous Bristlebird:
Photo by Ron Knight (CC BY)
Notes regarding the presence of these species on the dunes
The location of the mammal species at the Painkalac dunes are restricted to the base of the dune close in the swamp habitat. This is related to their habitat preferences, and also to the fact that the dunes are currently infested with the environmental weeds such as the Coastal Tea-tree Leptospermum laevigatum that has resulted in the decline of all understorey habitat that is so important for the mammals (Wilson and Garkaklis 2023).
Weed management is currently being implemented in the coastal dune and estuary refuges (Great Ocean Road Coast and Parks Authority 2022; Surf Coast Shire pers. comm). It is recommended that where weed removal restoration work is implemented it must but must be undertaken judiciously, leaving any patches of native vegetation to provide animal habitat, and to conduct suitable restoration plantings to restore structurally complex vegetation including a dense understorey. Further predator control is being undertaken to protect the mammals in these refuges (Great Ocean Road Coast and Parks Authority).
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