The ultimate guide to Wilsons Promontory National Park

Imogen EvesonBy Imogen Eveson
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Located at the southern tip of Australia’s mainland, Wilsons Promontory is a coastal wilderness of golden beaches and bushland trails which serves as one of Victoria’s favourite parks for good reason.

At the southernmost point of mainland Australia lies Victoria’s oldest and one of its most-loved national parks. Wilsons Promontory is a 50,000-hectare coastal wilderness of sandy beaches, granite tors, fern gullies, mountain peaks and native wildlife (think emus, wombats and vividly plumed rosellas), and even harbours a vast inland sand dune system. It is an Aboriginal cultural landscape that remains of major spiritual significance to Victorian Koorie communities today.

Getting to Wilsons Prom

Visit for the day, it’s three hours’ drive from Melbourne in South Gippsland, or stay awhile: the Prom’s main hub is the family-friendly Tidal River (named for the tea tree-stained waterway that curls lazily around it), which offers family-friendly campsites and huts (book ahead, especially in peak season) or hike to a secluded campsite or the historic cottages at the Wilsons Promontory Lightstation.

Wilsons Promontory national park
Marvel at the beauty found within one of Victoria’s favourite parks.

What to do at Wilsons Prom

Squeaky Beach

A must-hear sound as much as a must-see sight, powdery white Squeaky Beach gets its name from the noise your feet make as they pad along it. That’s thanks to the fine, rounded grains of quartz sand that compress under your feet as you walk. While here, take a dip in the famously turquoise waters and explore the maze of large granite boulders at the northern end of this iconic beach.

Mt Oberon

Set your sights on the summit of Mt Oberon for one of the best views in Victoria. This trek is short, at 6.8 kilometres return, and steep as you approach the granite peak where you’ll be rewarded with a panorama of Wilsons Promontory: from its pristine coastline and Tidal River to its offshore islands, gullies and other mountains. For a more rugged and challenging trek, hike Mt Bishop.

Mt Oberon Wilsons Prom
Views from the summit of Mt Oberon

Whisky Bay

Follow the coastal walk that connects some of Wilsons Prom’s pristine beaches from Squeaky Beach round to Whisky Bay – preferably in time for sunset (also accessible via its own car park). A secluded beach with colourful rock outcrops, its position on the western coast of the peninsula provides the rare opportunity on the east coast of Australia to see the sun go down over the ocean. Watch as sky, sand and sea turn all the shades of a Manhattan, and islands cast perfect silhouettes on the horizon.

Big Drift

One of the most unusual features of Wilsons Prom is rather poetically called the Big Drift: a landscape of vast and ever-shifting sand dunes. Near the park’s entrance yet off the beaten track, to get there it’s a two-kilometre walk from Stockyards Camp along a path that winds through bushland, paddocks and over hills until presenting you with the otherworldly sight. Spend time exploring but keep an eye on where you’ve come from – it can be easy to get lost here.

The Big Drift Wilsons Prom
The Big Drift… a landscape of vast and ever-shifting sand dunes.

A Pennicott cruise

Jump aboard one of Pennicott Wilderness Journeys’ amphibious yellow boats to explore the Prom’s rugged coastline and unique wildlife, venture to South Point and take in the granite monolith that is Skull Rock.

Hike to Sealers Cove

No roads lead to this picturesque cove, all sandy shores and forest fringed, so what better excuse to lace up your walking boots? Access to Sealers Cove is only possible via a 25km hike from Telegraph Saddle.

Marine national park

Wilsons Prom is home to Victoria’s largest marine protected area, with waters off the southern coast that harbour a fascinating world ripe for exploration by divers and snorkellers and rivalling the Great Barrier Reef.

 

Find more memorable things to do at Wilsons Prom here.

Wilsons Prom
A typical Wilsons Prom view of turquoise waters and golden sands.

Wildlife at Wilsons Prom

Wilsons Promontory is a refuge for native wildlife and a top whale-watching spot to boot.

Wombat

Visitors to Wilsons Prom will delight in seeing the typically reclusive wombat in the wild, and in fact, the portly marsupial can be quite bold and cheeky in its foraging for food at popular camping spot Tidal River; Parks Victoria advises storing food in your vehicle at night so as not to be woken by a furry intruder.

Whales

Tours run seasonally, typically from May to October with peak whale season usually from June to September.

Spot-tailed quoll

Part of a $23 million upgrade of the national park, a 10-kilometre predator-proof fence is being built across the isthmus at the entry to the Prom to create a 50,000-hectare sanctuary for vulnerable native species including the ground parrot, southern brown bandicoot and spot-tailed quoll.

Emu

The mighty emu is another fixture of Wilsons Prom and, while you may count yourself lucky enough to catch a glimpse of one on your travels around the park, up your chances by heading along on the short, sweet and appropriately named Prom Wildlife Walk, where you’ll also see other native wildlife including wallabies, roos and more wombats.

Access to Wilsons Prom

Wilsons Promontory is one of several national parks in Victoria that has free all-terrain wheelchairs; TrailRiders are available to hire so those with mobility limitations can enjoy and explore the wilderness including the views from the summit of Mt Oberon. The Prom, in fact, is one of three parks that offer the use of TrailRiders for going longer and steeper, and has beach wheelchairs too. See parks.vic.gov.au for more information.

Imogen Eveson
Imogen Eveson is Australian Traveller’s Print Editor. She was named Editor of the Year at the 2024 Mumbrella Publish Awards and in 2023, was awarded the Cruise Line Industry Association (CLIA) Australia’s Media Award. Before joining Australian Traveller Media as sub-editor in 2017, Imogen wrote for publications including Broadsheet, Russh and SilverKris. She launched her career in London, where she graduated with a BA Hons degree in fashion communication from world-renowned arts and design college Central Saint Martins. She is the author/designer of The Wapping Project on Paper, published by Black Dog Publishing in 2014. Growing up in Glastonbury, home to the largest music and performing arts festival in the world, instilled in Imogen a passion for cultural cross-pollination that finds perfect expression today in shaping Australia’s leading travel titles. Imogen regularly appears as a guest on radio travel segments, including ABC National Nightlife, and is invited to attend global travel expos such as IMM, ILTM, Further East and We Are Africa.
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Victoria’s surprising new outdoor adventure hotspot

    Craig TansleyBy Craig Tansley
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    A town charmingly paused in time has become a hot mountain biking destination. 

    There’s a forest reserve full of eucalyptus and pines surrounding town – when you combine all the greenery with a main street of grand old buildings still standing from the Victorian Gold Rush, Creswick looks more period movie set than a 21st-century town.  

    old gold bank Victoria
    Grand buildings from the Victorian gold rush. (Image: Visit Victoria)

    This entire region of Victoria – the Central Goldfields – is as pretty-as-a-picture, but there’s something extra-special about Creswick. I used to live 30 minutes north; I’d drive in some evenings to cruise its main street at dusk, and pretend I was travelling back in time. 

    It was sleepy back then, but that’s changed. Where I used to walk through its forest, now I’m hurtling down the state’s best new mountain bike trails. There’s a 60-kilometre network of mountain bike trails – dubbed Djuwang Baring – which make Creswick the state’s hottest new mountain biking destination.  

    Meet Victoria’s new mountain biking capital 

    Creswick bike trail
    This historic town has become a mountain biking hotspot.

    Victoria has a habit of turning quiet country towns into mountain biking hotspots. I was there in the mid-2000s when the tiny Otways village of Forrest embarked on an ambitious plan to save itself (after the death of its timber cutting industry) courtesy of some of the world’s best mountain bike trails. A screaming success it proved to be, and soon mountain bike trails began popping up all over Victoria. 

    I’m no expert, so I like that a lot of Creswick’s trails are as scenic as they are challenging. I prefer intermediate trails, such as Down Martuk, with its flowing berms and a view round every corner. Everyone from outright beginners to experts can be happy here. There’s trails that take me down technical rock sections with plenty of bumps. But there’s enough on offer to appeal to day-trippers, as much as hard-core mountain-bikers. 

    I love that the trails empty onto that grand old main street. There’s bars still standing from the Gold Rush of the 1850s I can refuel at. Like the award-winning Farmers Arms, not to be confused with the pub sharing its name in Daylesford. It’s stood since 1857. And The American Creswick built two years later, or Odessa Wine Bar, part of Leaver’s Hotel in an 1856-built former gold exchange bank.  

    The Woodlands
    The Woodlands is set on a large bushland property. (Image: Vanessa Smith Photography)

    Creswick is also full of great cafes and restaurants, many of them set in the same old buildings that have stood for 170 years. So whether you’re here for the rush of the trails or the calm of town life, Creswick provides. 

    A traveller’s checklist 

    Staying there 

    1970s log cabin
    Inside the Woodlands, a chic 1970s log cabin. (Image: Vanessa Smith Photography)

    RACV Goldfields Resort is a contemporary stay with a restaurant, swimming pool and golf course. The Woodlands in nearby Lal Lal comprises a chic log cabin set on a 16-hectare property abundant in native wildlife. 

    Eating there 

    Le Peche Gourmand
    Le Peche Gourmand makes for the perfect pitstop for carb and sugar-loading.

    The menu at Odessa at Leaver’s Hotel includes some Thai-inspired fare. Fuel up for your ride on baguettes and pastries from French patisserie Le Peche Gourmand . The Farmers Arms has been a much-loved local institution since 1857. 

    Playing there 

    Miss NorthcottsGarden
    Miss Northcotts Garden is a charming garden store with tea room. (Image: Visit Victoria)

    Creswick State Forest has a variety of hiking trails, including a section of the 210-kilometre-long Goldfields Track. Miss Northcotts Garden is a quaint garden store with tea room.