One of my most treasured spots, Wilsons Prom at the southernmost tip of mainland Australia is a wonder for the sight and senses. Here is my guide to getting there and what to see and do.
You can get there after about two hours pleasant driving from Melbourne, passing through Dandenong and the flat lands towards Philip Island, then the pretty, rolling countryside around Korrumburra and Leongatha. Or you can take the perhaps quicker, but decidedly less attractive route down the Princes Highway and across the ‘top’ via the exquisite little town of Mirboo North.
If you’re coming from the opposite direction of Sydney, you’ll experience more great scenery, ocean views and quaint stopping places, along the Princes Highway again but in the opposite direction to Melbourne, until you arrive at Sale. Here you branch off onto the South Gippsland Highway through Yarram and Foster, both great places for a coffee break or lunch, before the final dash to your destination.
Whichever way you’re coming, you’re likely to enjoy the trip, with plenty of wonderful places to stop, admire views and find very adequate shopping in the little towns along the way. From Mallacoota on the New South Wales border in the east, to Philip Island in the west, you’re in Gippsland, one of the most beautiful areas in the whole of Australia. It is a green and pleasant land dappled with forests, dairy farms, flat coastal plains and brooding hills. And right at the very heart of this wonderland stands the southernmost tip of mainland Australia, Wilsons Promontory, known affectionately to Victorians as ‘The Prom’.
One of the main attractions of The Prom is the fact that there is virtually nothing there! The whole area is designated as a National Park and as such only absolute minimal building is permitted, a shop, some toilets and a few cabins just about cover it. Anyone going there for a holiday must take their own tent or caravan and due to the popularity of the place it is often necessary to book your site up to a year ahead! This is because the number of people allowed to stay for more than a day trip is strictly limited.
Once you get there a whole new world opens up to you! Stroll along the gleaming white sand of ‘Squeaky Beach’, sliding your feet instead of lifting them, to hear the ground sing to you. Watch the sparkling sea, bluer than the bluest eyes, the sunlight dancing like gleaming fairies over its surface. If you have the energy, climb the forbidding five hundred and fifty-meter Mount Oberon for fabulous views along the coast and far inland. And for the really energetic, there are magnificent hiking trails, some only a half hour’s walk, others that can take three days or more to complete and require you to have your own food and water with you. Definitely not for the faint hearted!
I remember my very first visit to The Prom, many years ago, as we drove past one of the flat, open paddocks to the north. I spotted a hundred or more black boulders, dotted about all over the place. Wondering what cataclysmic event had dumped them there, I stopped, got out of the car and strolled over for a closer look. As I neared the closest of the ‘rocks’, I was startled when it suddenly popped up, grew a head on the top and leaped away from me as fast as it could. This frantic movement caused other ‘rocks’ to do the same, in an ever increasing circle, until, a few seconds later, the whole field was completely empty. I’m sure you have guessed by now that I had walked into a large troop of kangaroos, relaxing in the heat of the day until I so unceremoniously disturbed them… and frightened me!
Wilsons Prom is like that. You never really know what might appear next, a wombat or event possibly a Tasmanian Tiger! That is the charm of the place; the mystery that draws people back, again and again.