Four Unique Environments
The Great South West Walk is home to the Gunditjmara people. The Woorowarook Mirring (forest country),the waters of the Pareetj Mirring freshwater country, the Bocara Woorowarook Mirring forest river country, to the Nyamat Mirring sea country, all tell an integral part of the connection to country Gunditjmara people have maintained for tens of thousands of years. We walk amongst this landscape, upon ancestors’ shoulders, and pay our respects to Elders, past and present. Please take some time to pay respects to our ancestors on the 262km loop walk, taking only photos and leaving only footprints.
Forest Walk
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The 80km western section of the walk, from Portland to Moleside, begins gently, taking walkers through classic Australian eucalypt forest. The track is flat and even, with attractive valleys and river crossings. It explores the headwaters of the Surry and Fitzroy rivers where ferns flourish in the gullies. Crimson rosellas in flashes of hot red and deep blue flicker through the trees. Gang gangs, cockatoos and even cuckoos inhabit the trees during Spring. Kangaroos and emus move freely amid native flowers.
This section is ideal for short walks, with excellent picnic facilities and vehicle access at Surry Ridge and Jackass Fern Gully.
Glenelg River
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The trees grow shorter and more rugged as the track approaches the banks of the mighty Glenelg River. The track winds alongside the river and then up along the rim of the towering gorge. It turns away from the gorge for brief stretches but always returns to the edge for the most spectacular lookouts imaginable.
The river is tidal, and the estuary widens as it approaches the sea. The sound of waves sometimes echoes 30 kilometres upstream. Many visitors combine canoeing and walking.
Wildlife is in abundance and includes platypus, ducks, moorhens, emus, kangaroos, wallabies, possums, koalas, wombats and kingfishers. More than 700 species of native plants bloom in the bush, including dozens of different wildflowers.
Loop walks are popular at Battersbys and Pritchards camps and picnic grounds.
Discovery Bay
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The third section of the walk is wild and exposed, in contrast to the sheltered Glenelg River. Few beaches in Australia run for 55 kilometres on open sand facing such gigantic surf as the beach of Discovery Bay.
There are huge mobile sand dunes around Swan Lake and beautiful deep water just inland at Lake Mombeong.
This 55-kilometre beach showcases the wild, wild ocean that can really roar and it exhilarates every visitor who dares these isolated shores.
It is best to make your way along the beach section at low tide, rather than negotiate the soft sand above the high tide water line.
BEWARE – swimming anywhere along Discovery Bay is not advisable, due to dangerous rips and strong undertow that can carry even strong and experienced swimmers out to sea.
Capes and Bays
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Cape Bridgewater has some of the highest coastal cliffs in Victoria and protects a bay that stretches in a perfect crescent around the rim of a huge, ancient volcano crater. Swell lines echo the circle of the caldera. One of the most popular walks around the area takes visitors to a lookout on the tip of the cape and to a platform above a seal colony. The western flank of the cape features a blowhole and a surreal landscape of calcified sediment that looks like a forest of tree roots or kelp turned into rock. Suspended lookouts, strengthened by cables, offer some breathtaking views.
Cape Nelson features more stunning views from rugged cliffs with a contrasting section that visits the “Enchanted Forest”, hidden in a landslip halfway down a cliff, where haunting Moonah trees are draped by curtains of falling vines. This is truly a popular fairyland for young children.
Cape Grant hosts the only mainland Australasian Gannet Colony, found at Point Danger where gannets can also be seen offshore on Lawrence Rocks. Blue Whales and Southern Right Whales can be observed, while seals and dolphins are abundant around all three capes.
