Coastal Cliffs of Phillip Island: A Cape Woolamai Walking Tour

Cape Woolamai was shaped by millions of years of violent ocean swells and fierce Antarctic winds. On this coastal walking tour, you’ll discover how this dramatic granite headland that marks the southern tip of Phillip Island became the setting for one of Australia’s most successful conservation programs. You’ll also explore sea caves carved by hydraulic action, pink granite cliffs that supplied stone for Melbourne’s Parliament House, and the nesting grounds of seabirds that migrate 15,000 kilometres from Alaska each year.

The tour starts at Woolamai Surf Beach, a designated National Surfing Reserve known for its powerful waves and dangerous rip currents. You’ll climb timber stairs through shearwater colonies, and follow clifftop tracks through coastal heathland. You’ll make your way to the Cape Woolamai Beacon at 112 metres above sea level, the highest point on Phillip Island, before descending to the sheltered waters of Cleeland Bight.

Along the way, you’ll hear about how George Bass landed his open whaleboat in 1798, naming this fish-shaped headland after the Eora word for snapper, and explore the ruins of the granite quarry that once supplied stone for Melbourne’s iconic buildings. The tour ends back at the Woolamai Surf Beach car park where you began your journey.

On this 150-minute circular walk, you’ll have a chance to:

• Stand before the Pinnacles, towering granite columns sculpted by 360 million years of weathering and pounded by Southern Ocean swells
• Trace the fox eradication program that saved the island’s Little Penguin colonies from certain extinction
• Witness the nesting burrows of Short-tailed Shearwaters, birds that navigate 30,000-kilometre annual migrations to return to the exact same burrow
• Learn how Eastern Barred Bandicoots were brought back from just 44 survivors to become ecosystem engineers turning over tonnes of soil
• Discover the industrial ruins of the Old Granite Quarry, where 1890s workers used plug-and-feather techniques to split massive stone blocks
• Explore Gull Island from the eastern clifftops, where Pacific Gulls and Pied Oystercatchers nest on isolated granite outcrops
• Walk the traditional lands of the Bunurong people, who harvested shearwater eggs and managed this country for thousands of years

This circuit combines dramatic ocean scenery with inspiring conservation success stories, offering one of Victoria’s most rewarding coastal walks through a landscape that’s both ancient and actively healing.