Sightings of southern right whales have begun. Each year these whales make a several thousand kilometre migration, from sub Antarctic waters to Australia's south coast. But why do they make this epic voyage?
The southern right whale's journey starts in the icy waters of the Southern Ocean.
This arch-mouthed baleen mammal - measuring up to 18 metres long and weighing up to 80 tonnes - goes there to feed during the summer months.
Plates on the sides of its upper jaws strain plankton skimmed from the water's surface.
With full bellies they begin the journey north, to breed.
Between May and September each year southern right whales are spotted around South Africa, South America, New Zealand and the south-coast of Australia.
Logans Beach at Warrnambool is a well-known whale nursery.
Mandy Watson from the Department of Sustainability and Environment has been studying whales along this coastline for several years.
She says a small number of whales come to these shallow waters to have calves each season between June and September.
But it's possible that right whales could once be found here in much larger numbers.
"There was a lot of whaling conducted out of Portland and Port Fairy and it's possible that there were whales that survived that mass culling to return to this area," Mandy says.
"This may be a very depleted remnant of a once larger aggregation area."
Now on Australia's list of endangered species, they were hunted to near extinction in the southern hemisphere.
It was named the right whale because it had a reputation for being the 'right whale' to hunt; its big, produces a lot of oil, swims slow and floats when it's killed.
But mothers and their newborns weren't only being hunted by humans.
The shallow waters at Logans Beach protect vulnerable young from their biggest predator - the killer whale.
"It's possibly reason why the mothers spend so much time close to shore, that would make it very difficult for a killer whale to attack and successfully kill a calf," Mandy says.
By June each year, it's clear whether or not there are whales preparing to have calves.
One resident whale, which the locals called Wilma, was recognisable by the missing piece in her fluke.
She was recorded to be coming to the beach in cycles for 25 years.
Because young whales are so hard to spot, it's hard to say exactly where they have their calves; whether it's at Logans Beach, another spot along the coast or further out to sea.
A southern right whale's pregnancy lasts about a year and mothers nurse their young for another 12 months.
The calf suckles from one of two nipples hidden in slits along the mother's belly, and can consume up to 200 litres of milk a day.
The rich milk allows them to grow rapidly over the next few months.
"What we're seeing when the calves are very small is they're spending a lot of time very close to mum, swimming on top of her back, they're staying at the surface for long periods of time and not diving for as long. And as they grow they're getting more and more independent and by the end of the season, you'll see them swimming away from their mothers and interacting with other whales," Mandy says.
"They start off about a fifth the size of their mothers, and then by the end of the season they might've reached up to a third of the size of their mothers."
Female southern right whales calve every three years.
In 2009, the largest recorded number of southern rights came through the area, and Mandy is hoping that means they'll see a healthy number of whales visiting this year.
"On average at Logans Beach, there's been only two females calving here every year. In 2009, we had six, which is our highest number of females but we also had a lot of other single whales, so we had 21 whales recorded here on one day," Mandy says.
"The females that are not calving don't seem to be coming to the coast, they don't seem to migrating, so what we're seeing is about a third of the calving population in any one year."
The Department of Sustainability and Environment has been working with Deakin University and volunteers from the community, to keep record of individual southern right whales that are visiting each year.
This is part of a larger project around the country - using photo identification and monitoring from air and land - to try and understand the Southern Right Whale's movement and population size.
Volunteers identify and name the whales using scars or callosity patterns on their eyebrow, lips, chin and head.
During winter, local whale observer Peter Reid spends six days a week and up to eight hours a day on the platform at Logans Beach.
"I can sometimes look at a whale over a nautical mile out and I can tell who she is just because of her callosity pattern."
Peter says the whales seem to be most active when there is rough weather, strong winds and big surf.
"Everyone loves these whales when they breach, and it is spectacular when an 80 tonne whale comes out of the water...they'll get up to two thirds out of the water, and it'll twist on its side and then crash on its back with its pectoral flippers sticking out straight in front of it, and the splash is just awe-inspiring."
At the start of each whale watching season he sits and waits for the arrival of unknown southern right whales, and the return of familiar baleen friends.
"One of the most exciting things I get in the start of the season is hopefully to see these whales survive the last three years and are pregnant and come back and have a calf."