You can now explore a section of Corner Inlet’s littoral zone without getting your feet wet when the tide is in or damaging the profusion of low-growing coastal vegetation from along the newly built boardwalk at Toora Beach.

At either end of the boardwalk are stretches of edged and gravelled walking track and together they link the Toora bird hide with the district’s floating boat ramp car park and picnic area.

Go right to the end of the Toora Jetty Road past the sign marking the beginning of the Corner Inlet Marine and Coastal Park and you will see the roof of the bird hide right in front of you.

Take a little time to sit inside the bird hide and see how many species of migratory wading and indigenous sea birds you can see fossicking in the shallows and on the intertidal mud- and sandflats of the Inlet.

The significance of Corner Inlet’s wetlands are recognised internationally under the Ramsar Convention.

Then wander along the new track and onto the boardwalk past saltmarsh plants such as Pigface and Beaded and Shrubby Glassworts and patches of White Mangrove.

Halfway along the boardwalk is an observation deck with a rail that’s ideal for leaning on and admiring the view across the Inlet to the unmistakable silhouette of Wilsons Promontory away to the south and the edge of the Yanakie isthmus to the west.

Look towards the east and you can see the buildings and cranes of Barry Beach Marine Terminal and the foothills of the Strzelecki Ranges reaching up from the sea.

North is the pale bulk and the towering chimney of the former Bonlac Foods Limited milk factory and beyond are the turbines of the Toora wind farm rotating in the breeze.

The members of a Won Wron Prison community work gang built the boardwalk and track on behalf of the Toora and District Progress Association.

The project was paid for with a $6500 grant from the Victorian Government’s Coastcare/Coast Action supplemented by further funding of $1500 from the South Gippsland Shire.