Forrest

History

The History of Forrest started more than 40,000 years ago. Forrest is at the northern end of the Otway Ranges. Historically, the Otway Ranges are the land of the Gadubanud people. The current boundaries of the Colac Otway Shire Council partially include land belonging to the tribes of the Gadubanud people and Gulidjan. Author Lawrence Niewójt (2009) attempted to reconstruct the cultural landscape created by the Gadubanud people prior to their disastrous encounter with Europeans in the late 1840s. Their vast territory stretching from Painkalac Creek (near Aireys Inlet) in the east to the Gellibrand River that flows west of the mountains is over 100 kilometres and incorporates what is now Forrest. (Figure 1)

Most-observed species

• Superb Fairywren

  Malurus cyaneus (Ellis, 1782) · Aves
  1,359
• Crimson Rosella

  Platycercus elegans (Gmelin, 1788) · Aves
  1,305
• Gray Fantail

  Rhipidura albiscapa Gould, 1840 · Aves
  1,253
• Brown Thornbill

  Acanthiza pusilla (Shaw, 1790) · Aves
  1,141
• Eastern Yellow Robin

  Eopsaltria australis (Shaw, 1790) · Aves
  996
• Australian Magpie

  Gymnorhina tibicen (Latham, 1802) · Aves
  991
• White-browed Scrubwren

  Sericornis frontalis (Vigors & Horsfield, 1827) · Aves
  907
• Gray Shrikethrush

  Colluricincla harmonica (Latham, 1802) · Aves
  830

Most recent

• M 4.1 — 2026-07-05
  28 km WNW of Apollo Bay, Australia
• M 3.5 — 2023-10-21
  10 km NW of Apollo Bay, Australia
• M 4.8 — 2023-10-21
  16 km WNW of Apollo Bay, Australia
• M 3.1 — 2013-05-01
  7 km NW of Clifton Springs, Australia
• M 3 — 2010-03-30
  4 km NNE of Portarlington, Australia