The happy feet of Phillip Island

While the box office success of the film Happy Feet has been a huge boon for the Australian film industry, it has also aroused worldwide interest in penguins.

The screen adventures of Mumble, his family and mates as they set out to discover what was causing so much chaos to their home struck an environmental chord at a time when the world was waking up to the climate changes happening to our planet.

As a result, interest in penguins has never been stronger and, when the tour guides at the Phillip Island Nature Park tell you the nightly Penguin Parade has become Australia’s third most popular tourist attraction behind Uluru and the Sydney Opera House, it is an easy claim to believe.

Estimates for visitors last year stood at 3.5 million and those crowds do not look likely to drop off any time soon.

For years, the penguins who waddle ashore every night from the freezing waters of Bass Strait to their burrows in the sand dunes were known as fairy penguins. It seems the term fairy is not too politically popular with anyone these days and, in recent years, the creatures have become known simply as little penguins.

Phillip Island is one of the country’s main breeding grounds of little penguins, and the Penguin Parade and its various viewing platforms have proven to be a huge eco-tourism success. The attraction was recently awarded the country’s highest eco-tourism certification for the way the park allows visitors to get an up-close view of the penguins without disturbing the birds’ life patterns.

The Penguin Parade takes place from sunset at Summerland Beach, with tiered seating providing 180-degree views of the penguins as they begin their journey home after a day in the water.

What initially sounds a little dull -“ just sitting and watching tiny birds walk across a beach -“ becomes a fascinating study of bird behaviour. With the penguins only centimetres away from the crowds, it becomes an intriguing chance to study the style and characteristics of the birds at very close range.

Park rangers are on hand to give a commentary, via personal headsets, about what is going on and interpret the patterns of the penguins.

Phillip Island Nature Park is only a 90-minute drive from Melbourne, and is a worthwhile piece of the Victorian jigsaw of experiences. When next visiting Melbourne, drag yourself away from the shopping, coffee corners and clubs of Chapel and Brunswick Streets for a different kind of wild life -“ the natural kind. The Penguin Parade is a view of nature unlike anything you’ve probably ever seen.

More information of Phillip Island is at www.penguins.org.au. John Burfitt travelled to Victoria as a guest of Tourism Victoria.