Victoria (Western Region)

Set up as a re-created pioneer Australian seaport, this museum is a vital key to understanding this coastline. It was never a safe harbour and the stretch between Warrnambool and Port Fairy was the most treacherous. It claimed dozens of ships and lives. One of those lost was the mysterious Mahogany Ship which supposedly lies under the dunes at Armstrong Bay between Warmambool and Port Fairy. A reward of $250,000 has ended but the search for the ship continues.

WARRNAMBOOL seems unable to decide whether it’s an industrial city or a charming, seaside agricultural town. Coming into town on the Great Ocean Road you see the more pleasant aspects: the city’s lovely coastal setting, with Allansford Cheeseworld (Mon–Fri 8.30am–4.30pm, Sat 8.30am–4pm, Sun 10am–4pm) indicating that this is the centre of rich dairy country. As well as selling cheese, it has cheese and wine tastings, a café serving teas and light meals, and a museum. However, if you approach Warrnambool from the west along the Princes Highway, you’ll pass car lots, motels and an ugly factory belching smoke.

Warrnambool has a bustling downtown, with a major shopping centre on Liebig Street, several galleries and museums, and some fine old churches. Perhaps the best of the sights is the Warrnambool Art Gallery on Liebig Street (daily noon–5pm; $3), a fine provincial gallery with collections of Western District colonial paintings and contemporary Australian prints. The Botanic Gardens on Botanic Road, designed in 1877 by William Guilfoyle, then Director of the Melbourne Botanic Gardens, are also worth visiting if you happen to have some spare time. The classically designed, ornamental gardens are filled with winding paths and hills, and provide glimpses of the sea. There’s also a fernery, a waterlily pond and a small rotunda.

Lady Bay, where Warrnambool is sheltered, was first used by sealers and whalers in the early nineteenth century and was permanently settled from about 1839. Southern right whales, hunted almost to extinction, have begun to return in the last few years and have been sighted in the surf off Logans Beach between May and October. The bay was never a good port – exposed as it is to unpredictable weather, reefs and shallow water – and between 1836 and 1908 there were 28 shipwrecks here. The well-set up Flagstaff Hill Maritime Village on Merri Street (daily 9am–4.30pm; $10) has displays on these and other shipwrecks along the treacherous coast, paying particular emphasis to the Loch Ard disaster. The re-created nineteenth-century village is arranged around a fort erected in 1887, a time when, improbably, the fear of Russian invasion was widespread in Australia.

Tower Hill Game Reserve

About 13km west of Warrnambool along the Princes Highway, Tower Hill Game Reserve is located in the crater of a volcano which last erupted about 18,000 years ago. In the nineteenth century pioneer settlers stripped Tower Hill of its trees and used it as grazing land, but since the 1960s it has been reforested and wildlife has gradually returned. 

If you visit the island in the middle of the crater lake at dusk, you’ll encounter emus, koalas and loads of kangaroos and wallabies. The game reserve is open daily from dawn to dusk, but on days of extreme fire danger it may sometimes be closed (call 03/5565 9202 to check). 

The Natural History Centre (daily 9.30am–12.30pm, 1.30–4.30pm) on the island has displays about the area’s geological history and the revegetation programme, while a bird hide nearby enables you to spy on the abundant birdlife. There are also five self-guided short walks around the reserve (30min–1hr).

Practicalities

The refurbished Hotel Warrnambool, on the corner of Koroit and Kepler streets, offers good B&B pub accommodation in the town centre, while Pertobe B&B at 10 Banyan St is in a convenient location between the town centre and the beach. Just south of the roundabout along Pertobe Road and near the foreshore there are a few more options: Warrnambool Surfside Holiday Park, with self-contained one- to three-bedroom cottages and cabins as well as campsites right on the beach, Port Warrnambool Village B&B and the Lady Bay Hotel at the southwestern end of Pertobe Road near the breakwater. If none of these places have room, you could try any of the motels that line the Princes Highway at each end of town.

There are plenty of good places to eat on Liebig Street. Freshly cooked fish and chips are served at Seafoods, at no. 126. The Victoria Hotel, on the corner of Liebig and Lava streets, has bar meals. Beach Babylon at no. 72 serves pizza and pasta, while the Freshwater Cafe at no. 78 is a renowned, classy Italian restaurant (open Tues–Sat lunch and dinner). On the other side of the road, the funky Fishtales Café at no. 63 has an open courtyard; Restaurant Malaysia at no. 69 features inexpensive Southeast Asian cuisine; and Fitzsellers Café at no. 89 is a simple, pleasant joint serving sandwiches, quiches and other snacks. Further up the street there’s The Black Olive Bar Restaurant & Cafe in the Hotel Grand at no. 158 and Rios Deli at no. 142 for sandwiches, bagels and cakes. Rogers Bar in the Whalers Inn, on the corner of Liebig and Timor streets, is a slick, modern-looking place where Warrnambool’s young and trendy go to drink.

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