The Yellingbo Nature Conservation Reserve is located approx 45 km east of Melbourne. It is in three sections along the Woori Yallock, Cockatoo and Sheep Station Creeks. Refer to Melway Maps 305 to 308. The survey below is carried out in a limited area along the Woori Yallock Creek on the west side of Macclesfield Rd.

Historically the Helmeted Honeyeater was found along Woori Yallock and Cockatoo Creeks. Originally given full species status, its scientific name was Meliphaga cassidix, which was later changed to Lichenostomus cassidix. Later still it was classified as a subspecies of the Yellow-tufted Honeyaeter with the new name Lichenostomus melanops cassidix.

In the 1950's and 1960's it was realised that numbers were low and surveys were carried out by RAOU (Birds Australia) and VORG/BOC (Victorian Ornithological Research Group/Bird Observers Club), including Survey Cassidix. The results of these surveys were used to impress the Victorian Government of the need to eastablish a reserve dedicated to saving the Helmeted Honeyeater. This was suuccessful, and in 1967 the State Faunal Reserve at Yellingbo was created. BOC convened a meeting of interested landowners, which resulted in Allan McColl leasing BOC a 10 acre strip of land with frontage to Woori Yallock Creek and this was the start of the reserve. This is basically the site of the surveys still carried out at present.

In 1971 representations by BOC and others resulted in the Helmeted Honeyeater being adopted as the Victorian Bird Emblem., and Victorian Government spent $2M on purchases to enlarge the reserve.

BOC submitted "Conservation Project to Save the Helmeted Honeyeater" as an entry to the 1974 Victorian Conservation Prize. BOC was awarded the prize, a large painting of Helmeted Honeyeaters by Neil Douglas, which remains in BirdLife Australia's possession.

There are also records of Victoria's Animal Emblem, Leadbeater's Possum and Victoria's Floral Emblem, Pink Heath at the Yellingbo Nature Conservation Reserve, which may soon be renamed Yellingbo State Emblems Park.

The Friends of the Helmeted Honeyeater, established in 1989, is an active group in the area. To find out more about this group, visit http://www.helmetedhoneyeater.org.au/

Our thanks to David Ap-Thomas, who was the regular leader of the Yellingbo Bird Walks for about 20 years (now an occasional leader), for providing much of the above information and his records of sightings at Yellingbo Reserve for the period 1987 to 2006, prior to the sightings being listed on the website.

From February 1987 to December 2011, 148 species have been recorded on the site. Unfortunately the last records of a Helmeted Honeyeater at the survey site were 2 sightings in 2006 and prior to that 4 sightings in 2000. However, new Helmeted Honeyeater colonies have been established along the eastern section of the reserve, and at Tonimbuk and Labertouche North. To view images of Helmeted Honeyeater, click here.

To view the Yellingbo Reserve Survey Summary from 1987 to 2011, click here Note that all records of Helmeted Honeyeater on the survey summary prior to 2006 are listed as Yellow-tufted Honeyeater.