Budj Bim National Park

Budj Bim National Park is a volcanic national park in southwestern Victoria, within Glenelg Shire near Lake Condah and Macarthur. Centred on the dormant Budj Bim volcano (formerly Mount Eccles) and its crater lake, Lake Surprise, the park protects lava flows, lava canals, caves and stony rises. It forms part of the UNESCO World Heritage-listed Budj Bim Cultural Landscape, recognised for its ancient Gunditjmara aquaculture system and well-preserved volcanic features.

Visitors can explore a dormant volcanic landscape with a deep crater lake (Lake Surprise), lava canals, lava blisters and stony rises covered in native woodland. Sealed and unsealed roads lead to a campground and picnic area at Lake Surprise, with marked walking tracks including the Crater Rim Walk and Lava Canal Walk. The park offers lookouts over the crater, forested lava flows, birdlife and interpretive signs about volcanic formation and Gunditjmara heritage. Facilities are basic and the environment is natural and remote.

The park centres on Budj Bim, a dormant volcano that erupted approximately 30,000 to 40,000 years ago, creating lava flows, crater lakes and lava canals. The area was formerly known as Mount Eccles National Park, established in 1960, and renamed Budj Bim National Park in 2017. The surrounding Budj Bim Cultural Landscape contains one of the world's oldest aquaculture systems, with stone channels, weirs and dams constructed to trap and harvest kooyang (short-finned eel).

The park lies within Gunditjmara Country and is part of the Budj Bim Cultural Landscape, inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List in 2019. Budj Bim is a significant creation being in Gunditjmara oral tradition, and the landscape demonstrates long-term Gunditjmara engineering and management of water and eel harvesting. The Tae Rak (Lake Condah) area adjacent to the park remains culturally important to Gunditjmara people.