Wildlife Land Trust / Sanctuaries / VIC / Seatrees Farm

Seatrees Farm, Coast Cottages offers three self-contained, dog-friendly cottages, on a 42 hectare wildlife sanctuary, situated 3km from Apollo Bay with its superb beaches, cafes, restaurants and shops. All of the cottages provide absolute beach frontage, stunning ocean views, direct beach access to all-year round dog-friendly beaches, open fires, bushland with native wildlife, disabled access in Reef Cottage and no extra charge for dogs.

The superbly appointed cottages all offer privacy and seclusion with stunning ocean views and direct access to the Great Ocean Walk. A $10 Seatrees Wildlife Reserve environmental levy applies to all bookings to assist with the conservation, rehabilitation and rescue of injured wildlife.

Wil Bedford, Jenny Robinson and Pat Barnes are the owners of Seatrees Farm, which stretches along five beaches, approximately 60-70% of which is bushland with cleared land supporting a small sheep flock. Vegetation types include: coastal heathland and scrub; grey gum, stringybark and swamp gum forest; leafy flat sedgeland; prickly moses coastal shrubland; and coastal dune shrubland.

Wildlife species for which the sanctuary is known to provide habitat include swamp wallabies (Wallabia bicolor), koalas (Phascolarctos cinereus), short-beaked echidnas (Tachyglossus aculeatus), sugar gliders (Petaurus breviceps), ringtail possums (Pseudocheirus peregrinus), antechinus (Antechinus spp.), native bush rats (Rattus fuscipes), swamp rats (Rattus lutreolus), and microbats.

A variety of snakes and lizards, and more than 110 bird species including the endangered rufous bristlebird (Dasyornis broadbenti), are also present at Seatrees Farm.

This sanctuary is featured in Wildlife Lands 15!

Seatrees Farm is situated between the Great Ocean Road and Bass Strait in Marengo, just 3.5 kilometers from Apollo Bay in southwestern Victoria. It is two kilometres in length and one in depth between the Great Ocean Road and the ocean, with an overall size of 42 hectares. 

The property has exquisite natural beauty, rising from the coast to higher elevations, with areas of natural bushland, heathland, pasture, stringybark and swamp gum forests, coastal prickly moses, and vegetation communities of state significance. It is approximately 80 percent natural vegetation and 20 percent cleared pasture, abutting five sandy beaches and hosting a vegetation corridor through to the Otway National Park. Its faunal communities include at least six reptiles, seven terrestrial mammal species, four marine mammals, glorious fungi and insects, with over one hundred indigenous bird species including the endangered rufous bristlebird. Whales, seals, dolphins and many shorebirds and seabirds frequent the coastline along Seatrees Farm, including the endangered hooded plover and the near threatened beach stone-curlew. 

Seatrees Farm is an accredited wildlife shelter and over many years we have rescued and rehabilitated hundreds of native animals and birds including wallabies, echidnas, koalas, platypus, ringtail possums, sugar gliders, kangaroos, blue-tongue lizards, white goshawks, a giant petrel, owls and many smaller bush birds. It is a peaceful, aesthetically arresting place to live with spectacular views of land, sea, and sky merging with the sounds and rhythms of natural elements. Seatrees Farm also offers a wonderful retreat for like-minded people to explore the Otways environment. 

Our main aim is to conserve and improve upon what currently exists and to maintain, at the highest level, the features that make the property so special. Of particular importance is the beauty of the visual landscape and consistency of environmental design. Of greatest value also is the preservation of flora and fauna including the rich bird life; the nurturing of lifestyle values of peace, privacy and seclusion; the monitoring of wildlife corridors and habitats; and the continuing rehabilitation of injured wildlife. For more information visit: www.coastcottages.com.au 


Contact the owner

This sanctuary has been listed by Wil Bedford, Jenny Robinson and Pat Barnes who can be contacted by phone on 0407 555 017