Австралиядағы Devilbend табиғи қорығы

Nature reserve park in Australia

Devilbend Natural Features Reserve is a natural reserve park in the rural locality of Tuerong on the Mornington Peninsula in central southern Victoria, Australia, southeast of the state capital Melbourne's city center. The park contains two decommissioned water supply reservoirs, the Devilbend Reservoir and Bittern Reservoir, which are less than apart and linked by an often dry drainage channel. These reservoirs were the original reason the surrounding parkland was protected from general public access and was not subjected to land development. Both reservoirs are along the course of the eponymous Devilbend Creek, a left tributary of the much larger Balcombe Creek that drains into Port Phillip Bay at Mount Martha. Nearby just in the north, there is a much smaller, unnamed third lake further downstream along the creek in the neighbouring locality of Moorooduc, next to a golf course within what is known as the Devilbend Recreation Reserve.

The nowaday Devilbend Reserve parkland is located within the traditional country of the Bunurong people, part of the indigenous Kulin nation. The Bittern Reservoir, the smaller of the two reservoirs with a capacity of , was built in the 1930s. The much larger Devilbend Reservoir, with an area of and a capacity of , was built during the 1960s and opened in 1965, and is currently the largest freshwater body in the Shire of Mornington Peninsula. The Devilbend Foundation was created in 2002 to lobby against recreational fishing in the Devilbend Reserve, and against horseriding in the vicinity, arguing it would compromise the natural equilibrium of the park. The reserve was inaugurated by Peter Walsh, and took the name Devilbend Natural Features Reserve on this day. Among the new features of the park are the entrance gateway, the asphalt entrance road, sealed car park, the picnic and barbecue facilities, the walking tracks and the boardwalk.

Devilbend and Bittern Reservoirs have game fishes regularly stocked by the Victorian Fisheries Authority, both introduced (such as rainbow trout, brown trout and yellow perch) and native species (such as estuary perch, Australian bass and surf bream), as well as variously naturalized invasive species (such as redfin and carp). Angling is permitted but all adults aged between 18 and 69 require a recreational fishing license and all fishing activities needs to be done in accordance with the Victorian Recreational Fishing Guide. Bank fishing is permitted only in five designated fishing zones in the northern shores of the two reservoirs (four in Devilbend, one in Bittern), and boat fishing only in the non‐powered watercraft zone on Devilbend Reservoir. Starting in 2010, the Devilbend Reservoir was stocked with 14,000 rainbow trout and 21,000 brown trout. 100,000 trout were stocked in the Devilbend Reservoir between 2010 and 2017.