Wilsons Promontory National Park Travel Info If you are looking for a great adventure outdoors or things to do in Australia, Wilsons Prom is the place to go.
It is one of the most popular national parks in Australia, known for its coastal scenery, granite headlands, fern gullies and beaches, hilltop views and wildlife. The 50,000 hectare park covers a peninsula in the southernmost point of mainland Australia and includes marine reserves around the coast and 13 offshore islands. Here is some information about camping and bushwalks, and in the end of the page is accommodation and a map of the park.
Geological History Wilsons Promontory National Park is situated where Tasmania used to be connected to Australia before the sea levels rose about 15,000 years ago. The national park sits on the highest point of a 300km-long and 50km-wide batholith (igneous rock deposit) which links Tasmania to the mainland Australia.
Aboriginal and European History Wilsons Promontory is mentioned in some Dreamtime stories and the shell middens along the western coast show that Aboriginal people used to collect seafood here. Since Europeans arrived, the area was used for sealing and whaling, quarrying, mining and timber-cutting before it became a national park at the turn of the last century.
Australian Plants Before logging and a severe bushfire in 1951 there were 60m-tall trees in Wilsons Promontory. Today, the park is still rich in flora – about 700 species of plants such as banksias, she-oaks, tea-trees, Spinifex and wildflowers are found in its rainforests, grasslands and gullies.
Australian Animals Wilsons Promontory National Park is also a great place for wildlife-watch. The animals include grey kangaroos, koalas, wallabies, wombats, possums and bandicoots. The birds found in the park are emus, parrots like rainbow lorikeets and crimson rosellas; yellow-tailed black cockatoos, forest ravens, cape barren geese, oystercatchers and sea eagles. In Tidal River, flocks of crimson rosellas are always around, and the park is probably the best place in Australia to see common wombats grazing the lawns at night.
Tidal River - the Park's Centre In the end of the park’s only access road in western side of the park is Tidal River, where there is an educational centre, a petrol station, general store, lodges and camp sites, barbeques and picnic sites, an open-air cinema during the summer and the Wilsons Promontory National Park Office, where you can make bookings, get information, maps and camping permits, and during the summer holidays guides will help you to find wildlife on the tracks.
Southern Bushwalks There are 22 walking tracks in the Wilsons Promontory National Park, which total in 130km and vary from short strolls to long overnight bushwalks. Short walks from Tidal River take you to lookout points on western coast in Norman Point, Squeaky Bay and to the top of Mount Oberon where there are good views over the ocean. Longer walks go to South-east Point Lighthouse, Brown Head, Horn Point and Sealers Cove. There are camping sites at Sealers Cove, Refuge Cove, South Point, Oberon Bay, Frasers Creek and near Mount Wilson but you have to book with the Parks Victoria in good time – campers’ numbers are limited and places get booked out quickly, particularly during school holidays.
Northern Bushwalks The northern areas of the Wilsons Promontory National Park are less visited, but there are some long bushwalking tracks to Vereker Lookout, Miranda Bay and Johnnie Souey Cove. There are campsites at Barry Creek, Miranda Bay and Johnnie Souey Cove but again, you have to book.
Beaches along the Coastal Drive Along the road from park entrance to the Tidal River there are a few side drives to Cotters Beach and Darby Bay which are beautiful. Another side road (your first one on the left hand side as you enter) takes you to the starting point of the bushwalks in the northern sections of the park near Millers Landing.
Tours and Where to Stay If you don’t want to camp in the bush, you can stay at Foster Backpacker Hostel, Dannevig Motor Huts or Tidal River Cabins. If you don’t have you own transport, you can take a tour that takes you here with Bunyip Bushwalking Tours (from Melbourne) or Amaroo Park & Duck Truck Tours (from Phillip Island).
Here's a map of Wilsons Promontory, where I have tagged the places that I mentioned on this web page. You can click on the tags to see what places they are, and double-click anywhere on the map to zoom it in and see the places closer. Drag the map to move around, and if you want to see the satellite image with Google Earth, click on "Sat" in the top right hand corner.
NOTE: This website is written in British English, which is the English we use in Australia. You will find words like "traveller", "harbour" and "realise", and they are all correct in the language used in Australia.
