3 nights in Wilsons Prom

Wilson’s Promontory

Wilson’s Promontory (also known as The Prom) is the largest national park in Victoria. It is 3 hours east of Melbourne and is the most southerly point on the mainland of Australia. We went as part of our 7 day drive from Melbourne to Sydney.

The park was an amazing place with beautiful beaches (deserted when we visited), a variety of hikes and the sought-after wildlife encounters.

Getting Around

There is no entrance fee to visit, entry is free.

The main walks in the Prom are around Tidal River, which is around a 30-minute drive from Yanakie, the main accommodation area outside the park.

Since we wanted to spend a couple of days exploring the park, we decided to stay at Tidal River and do a few of the 2-hour walks each day. In theory many of the walks start from Tidal River, but when we were there, the Tidal River walking bridge was being repaired, so we had to drive out to the individual car parks.  Not a problem as we were there in the off-season, but I imagine the car parks could get busy during peak times – hopefully the bridge will be repaired soon.  Use the Wilson’s Promontory website for the latest information about closures.

Accommodation options at Tidal River

Depending on your required level of comfort,  several accommodation options are available. However, it is a good idea to book ahead of time. In the summer, I have heard that the campground at Tidal River have to be booked a year in advance or are only available on a ballot system.

• There are 475 camp pitches at Tidal River campground, 20 are powered
• Wilderness retreats – safari style tents with an ensuite, can accommodate three people
• Huts – one-room huts accommodate 4 or 6 people in bunk beds
• Cabins –  queen bed in one room and two bunk beds in a second room with a living area and deck
• Units – one-bed units with a living area and deck,
• Group lodges – accommodate 12, 24 or 30 people in dormitory rooms with bunk beds

In addition, you can camp in certain places along the walking routes but you will need a permit.

We stayed in a Wilderness retreat – being of a certain age, we enjoy the ensuite facilities! Since we had no flexibility on dates, we booked as soon as bookings opened for the season – on 1st April 25.

Wilderness Retreat Details

There were 4 widerness retreat tents each in its own little area, with a shared kitchen.

The tent had 3 distinctive areas – kitchen / diner, bedroom and bathroom. The kitchen/diner had an under the counter fridge, cupboard and dining table/chairs as well as a sofa. The bedroom (which could be shut off from the kitchen with canvas walls) had a queen bed with a made up trundle single bed underneath (we used the single bed as we like lots of space when sleeping). The bathroom included a shower and a good supply of hot water.

There was an electric heater in the bedroom area as well as extra blankets in the blanket box.

It was a really comfortable home for the 3 nights we were there.  However the first night was really windy and it did feel at times like the whole tent would fly away!

The 4 wilderness retreats shared a large full kitchen area. 

The kitchen tent had two sides with hob, sink and dining table and a shared large fridge. All cutlery, crockery and pots/pans were included. Eveything you need to cook.  We opted for very basic food – burgers / sausages that we had purchased before entring the park but others were cooking full meals – fish / bolognaise etc. Be aware there is a basic grocery store on site but it closes around 4pm.  I believe it sells coffee, pies etc. but we didn’t actually get the time to visit.

 Outside the kitchen tent, there is a outdoor seating and bbq area. 

Our original plan was to use the bbq to cook our sausages / burgers, but the electric bbq didn’t get hot.  Not sure if that was our incompetence or a broken bbq but nobody else was using the bbq in this area.  We noticed that the bbqs in other areas of the campground that were being used were gas rather than electric.

Walks / Wildlife

During the 3 days we were in the Prom, we concentrated on walks that were 2 – 3 hours long focused on wildlife and views. There are longer walks – full day or multi-day but the short walks worked best for us.  Find out more about the walks on the Parks Victoria website.

These are the walks that we did;

• Prom Wildlife Walk around 20km from Yanakie and 17km from Tidal River. We parked in the large layby by the side of the road and walked the paved 2.3km loop (grade 2, 45 min return) across open grasslands.  We did this twice and saw emus, kangaroos, wallabies and galahs (rose-breasted cockatoos)
• Norman Beach – an easy walk from our accomodation through the sand dunes and campground to a beautiful beach. We saw the occasional wombats scuttling across the sandy paths and plenty of crimson rosella parrots.
• Little Oberon Bay – a fairly easy, but quiet walk from our accomodation via Norman beach through light tea-tree scrub to another beautiful but (when we were there) very windy beach. We spotted a couple of wallabies in the bush on the way.
• Mount Bishop – a more challenging 7.4km walk up from the carpark to the rocky summit of Mount Bishop for views of the west coast of Wilson’s prom and Norman’s beach. Just a note when you think you are at the top, walk across the granite boulders and keep going to see the full extent of the views.

• From Five Mile carpark we took the easy walk to Millers Landing to see the mangroves (and some wallabies on the way) and then took the steep climb past grass trees to Vereker outlook. I have to be honest, I’m not sure if we got to the top of the outlook as the trail through the granite boulders got very confusing – not one that I would recommend.

• Squeaky beach to Picnic bay and Whisky bay. We parked at Squeaky beach – at the time the trail from Tidal river was closed – and went down to see yet another beautiful beach. The fine, rounded quartz sand really does make a squeaking sound when walked on. From here we followed the cliff top path to first Picnic bay and then Whisky bay. On our return we say wallabies in the bush and wombats in the car park.

Wildlife Spotting at The Prom

We came to Wilson’s Prom to see wildlife in their natural habit and it didn’t disappoint. We saw wallabies, kangaroos, wombats and birds on the walks listed above, but actually one of the best ways to get up close in a relaxed way was to walk around Tidal River particularly in the evenings when the wombats and wallbies came out to feed, but we did see a wombat just outside our Wilderness Retreat one lunch time. 

If you found this post useful, checkout the full description of our drive from Melbourne to Sydney in 7 days.