Port Campbell Caravan Park

Port Campbell Caravan Park -
Great Ocean Road Victoria

Accolades of praise to Parks Victoria as at present this is all FREE!

Port Campbell Caravan Park was our only option when exploring the Great Ocean Road in Victoria in January 2001. From Torquay to Apollo Bay was completely booked out. Now this park is run by Parks Victoria and isn't top of the list for facilities, BUT being surrounded by some of the best natural scenery in the world who cares! The location is pretty special. Coming round the last corner a lovely vista appears as the setting for Port Campbell is just about as picturesque as you can get.

Remember this is a National Park so don't expect the Ritz! There are two fairly basic amenity blocks made from brick. Lighting is OK, but no tiles or anything like that in one, but the main one has floor tiles and overall is a bit nicer. Hot water is not brilliant and kiddies will never get scalded. The laundry is good with Speed Queen washers and dryers. $3.00 to wash and $2.00 to dry for 30 minutes. Power for the iron is free - the iron is at the office. There is enough line space.

The beach in front of the park

There is bush on three sides

Surprise, surprise, Internet access is available at the pub nearest the water - the one with all the candy stripes. Yes you can have a drink whilst you surf the net! It is a delightful village with a huge range of food options with fish and chips the clear leader. The general store is truly excellent with apart from food, a great range of touristy items all reasonably priced, a good little video library, nice Post Office and overall a very nice shop with wonderfully helpful staff. Oh yes it has a cute bottle shop!

The park is surrounded on two sides by nice virgin bush and on one by the beachfront. You can't actually see the beach from any site, but there is a tiny river and some sites are riverfront - around sites D12 to D24. As we were only staying a night we choose to stay in the unpowered Overnight Section. This is all grass and very popular. The best sites in the whole park are in the Amphitheatre where it says No Camping! Of course everybody does.

The sign says it all!

Surf the Internet here!

Noise wise it's great and there is little park lighting to shine through your vents all night. The cabins are really nice and some overlook the river. All are done in varnished sawn timber with appropriate green trim and they blend in well with the surrounding greenery. Most are angled so it doesn't look like a whole bunch of buildings. Commercial parks could learn a lot from this layout. All sites are small and there is virtually no open area for kiddies - that great big beach is there though! No boom gates, but toilets are locked with a common key - $5 deposit and the office opens at 8AM. Managers are excellent, ultra friendly and tremendously obliging even though they were stretched to the limit being peak holiday time. On arrival you are given a mud map with possible sites. You have a wander then let them know where you have plonked. They do not take phone bookings even though they have EPTOS. They do this for all the "right" reasons. They were getting a few no shows even though they had paid. When others arrived there were spare holes. As they hate disappointing people they stopped taking bookings. We whole heartedly agree with this, as our biggest moan with National Parks in Queensland is the FULL sign being up, BUT dozens of empty sites. The worst example is O'Reillys in Lamington National Park followed closely by Girraween.

Walking opportunities are fantastic! The Discovery Walk along the cliff tops starts directly opposite the park at the western end of the beach. Just walking round the beach gives you quite a buzz as it really is a mini part of the Great Ocean Road. Sightseeing is what this area is all about. It can only be described as awesome! We made one huge mistake. We arrived at the Twelve Apostles at 3PM, the theory being to beat the afternoon heat. No one told us how much there is to see. Now, next trip we will get there at sunrise, do some walks and get some pictures. Then put the A'van up and have breakfast then rest until the afternoon, if it's summer. At present parking at some of the lookouts is totally abysmal for poor old caravanners. At one spot we were forced to park outside on the highway. This may be addressed in the future as a new information centre is being built. Glenample Homestead and Port Campbell are the only toilets in the whole area. Oddly we saw no rangers either, and there are no huts with maps. However, everything is free and it as spectacular, as you will find, anywhere in Australia. Nature at her absolute most glorious! The best advice we can give to anyone touring this area is to dawdle as slowly as humanly possible and take it all in. Lorne and Apollo Bay are great, but the best spots for A'vanners are at little foreshore camps run by Parks Victoria such as Aire River, Blanket Bay, Johanna Beach and Port Franklin This is as good as it gets folks as the last mentioned top spots are ALL free camping!! Page 32 of Camping in Victoria by Boiling Billy Publications gives a heap more info. An absolutely recommended book by the way! Wye River is another favourite, but a small fee applies.

If you must stay in Apollo Bay the best park is out on the headland with spectacular views up and down the coast. The other council one is at the football oval and is not waterfront. The eastern end of the Great Ocean Road is easiest to visit if you are based in Lorne or Torquay. Both these places are extremely touristy. All the photos on this page were taken within 30 minutes drive of Port Campbell. If you like the little more primitive natural parks you will find several listed in Camping in Victoria. as mentioned above. It is a great book! There is a National Park information centre right at the parks front gate. What a fantastic building with extremely helpful staff where nothing is too much trouble, as well as excellent displays. We loved the huge old anchor out the front. Great for photos!

The park has good tasting town water. Telstra GSM and CDMA both work from about 10 kms out of town and the nearest Telstra phone box is in the main street. A few words for those towing their treasured A'van with a four cylinder vehicle. Some speed limits on the Great Ocean Road are far toooooo high and as there are quite a few very steep hills you will find yourself holding up the traffic sometimes. There are no slow lanes as such as found in NSW and Queensland - you pull to the left in passing bays usually at the top of the hills. In a Forester we were pulling 4000+ RPM in second on some!

There is a wealth of info on the Great Ocean Road on the internet using any search engine. If this is new to you try typing www.google.com then type in Great Ocean Road and hit enter. It will give you DAYS of stuff to look at! Tourist information in Apollo Bay is wonderful and it is sited right on the beach and very easy A'van parking on mown grass with some shade - a great lunch spot. National Parks have a fantastic site and you could truly plan your whole visit just using this marvellous site! Actually it is a perfect example of what a site should be.

For more info on Port Campbell just phone Chris or Joy Wilkinson on 03 5598 6492. Cost of an unpowered site in January 2001 was $15. Absolutely, unconditionally recommended!

Bob & Chrissy Eustace

Click on the compass for a map of the local area

Port Campbell Caravan Park - Victoria