So I finally made some time to update for Australia Day (January 26th)
I have long wanted to add any of the crake species to my life list, but so far they have all eluded me. After doing a bit of reseach, I discovered that one of the best places to see them in the greater Melbourne area is the Mill Park Lakes (a man-made wetland in the northern suburbs) So I set out in the morning with the aim of seeing at least one species of crake (we get 3 species in Victoria; Baillon's, Australian Spotted and Spotless. All of which have been seen at this site, some more commonly than others) and of getting my list over 100 species before the end of the month. I am pleased to say I succeeded on both counts, adding Australian Spotted Crake and Latham's Snipe to my life list and adding a good number of extra species to my Big Year list including Black-tailed Native-hen, Blue-billed Duck and Australasian Shoveler. Sadly, the photo's I got of the Australian Spotted Crake did not turn out too good, though they are better than the Beautiful Firetail I got on the 1st. Will post it if you really want to see it.
Not a great many decent photo's to show for my efforts, but here's the best of them:
Black Swan:

Blue-billed Ducks courting

:

Australasian Grebe with chick:
Species count to date: 102.