Phillip Island

Why it matters

Phillip Island is Millowl to the Bunurong people, the Traditional Owners of the island and the coast around Western Port. It is low, green and windswept, joined to the mainland by a bridge at San Remo, with Bass Strait along its southern shore.

The island is home to a colony of about 40,000 little penguins, the smallest penguin in the world, which nest in burrows in the dunes and grassland and go out to sea to feed. The parade exists because the island chose the penguins. A housing estate had been laid out across the colony on the Summerland Peninsula, and 190 homes were built there. In 1985 the Victorian Government began buying the properties back, and by June 2010 it owned them all; the land has since been returned to the penguins. Phillip Island Nature Parks now runs the parade and the reserves around it.

The island is also home to short-tailed shearwaters, which return to their burrows on Cape Woolamai from late September. Seal Rocks, off the western tip, holds one of the world’s largest colonies of Australian fur seals, some 20,000 to 25,000 animals. The penguins are the reason most people come, but the island is a wildlife refuge as a whole.

That history explains what you find. The stands and boardwalks keep people off the sand, and the rules on light protect the birds. The parade is run for the penguins first and the visitors second, which is why it still happens every night.

What it’s like

The evening starts in daylight. You arrive an hour before sunset, walk out on the boardwalk to the beach and take your place, and then you wait while the light goes and the wind comes in off Bass Strait. Writers who have watched describe a cold, windy dusk, and Nature Parks tells you to dress for it.

The penguins come in at dusk. They come out of the surf in groups and cross the open sand together, quickly. Once over it they slow down. The procession breaks into smaller groups that pick their way up the paths into the dunes, calling to each other, past the boardwalks and close to the people on them. On some nights hundreds come ashore; one visitor was told 613 had landed on the night she watched.

When we went, more than ten years ago, you could sit on the beach itself. We sat on the sand at nightfall as the penguins came out of the surf, walked past us, scattered and went into their burrows, and it was quite magical. Today you watch from stands above the beach or from boardwalks through the dunes, and in the underground viewing area from windows at the penguins’ own height. The birds have not changed.

By day the island is a different place: a coast of basalt and granite headlands, surf beaches on the south side and calmer water at Cowes on the north. At the Nobbies the boardwalk runs out over the cliffs at the island’s western tip, with Seal Rocks offshore. At Cape Woolamai the granite turns red and the shearwaters come back to their burrows from late September. Most people see these in the afternoon and are glad they came early.

What to do on the island

The day fits together easily. Spend the afternoon on the coast and with the koalas, eat early, and be at the parade an hour before sunset. Everything below is a short drive from everything else.

The Penguin Parade

The parade happens every night of the year at Summerland Beach, on the island’s south-western corner, and begins at sunset. Nature Parks asks you to arrive at least an hour before the penguins for General Viewing and Penguins Plus, and half an hour before for Underground Viewing, and publishes a calendar of arrival times. Everyone needs a ticket, infants included, and under-16s must be with an adult.

Which ticket depends on how close you want to be and how much you will pay for it. General Viewing seats you in the stands above the beach with most of the evening’s visitors. The dearer tickets bring you nearer: Penguins Plus to a viewing area closer to the birds’ path, and Underground Viewing to windows at their eye level. The guided tours are for small groups and carry age limits.

On photographs: Nature Parks asks visitors not to take photos after sunset, and some guides describe a ban on cameras during the parade. Put the phone away when the light goes.

The Nobbies

At the island’s western tip a boardwalk runs out over the cliffs to the Nobbies, with views to Seal Rocks. The boardwalks and car park are open and free. The Nobbies Centre, with its café and toilets, has been closed since storm damage to its roof, and no reopening date has been published.

The Koala Conservation Reserve

Two boardwalks, an 800-metre treetop loop and a 600-metre woodland loop, bring you level with koalas asleep in the eucalypts. Both are ramped. The reserve is open 10am to 5.30pm, last entry 5pm; adult $17.50, child $8.75, family $43.75.

Churchill Island

A small island joined to Phillip Island by a bridge, with a heritage farm, old homestead and gardens. It is open 10am to 5pm, last entry 4.30pm, at the same prices as the koala reserve; the 4.5-kilometre loop walk round the island is free. A 3 Parks Pass covers the parade, the koalas and Churchill Island, valid for six months; Nature Parks does not show its price on the page we read.

Cape Woolamai and the beaches

Cape Woolamai is the granite headland at the island’s eastern end. The walk to the Pinnacles is 4.4 kilometres return, about two hours; the full circuit is 8.1 kilometres and about four and a half hours. Some tracks can be cut off at very high tide, and copperhead snakes live on the island, so keep to the paths.

Woolamai Beach below it is a surf beach with strong rips, patrolled only between the flags, and mostly on summer weekends. For swimming, Cowes, on the north side, faces the calmer water of Western Port and is one of the few north-facing beaches in Victoria.

The Grand Prix Circuit

The circuit has a visitor centre, a café, a karting track and a motorsport museum (Visit Bass Coast). The October 2026 MotoGP was reported to be the last at Phillip Island, with the race moving to Adelaide from 2027; check the circuit’s own calendar for the race weekends that remain, when the island’s roads and beds fill.

How to visit

Visiting with children

The parade is an evening children remember: the waiting, the dark and then the birds. It is also late and cold, and the panel sets out what that involves.

Getting there

Phillip Island is south-east of Melbourne at the mouth of Western Port. Drive out on the Monash Freeway and the Bass Highway to San Remo, then across the bridge; the Penguin Parade is at the far western end of the island, about twenty minutes beyond the bridge. Nature Parks puts the drive at 90 to 120 minutes from Melbourne; our own guide is about two hours, depending where you start.

Without a car, a V/Line bus runs from Southern Cross to Cowes, but it does not go to the parade, and there is no bus back to Melbourne afterwards. Day tours from central Melbourne include the parade and bring you back late at night, which solves the problem for anyone without a car.

Seasons

The penguins come ashore every night of the year, so there is no wrong month, only a different evening. In summer the sun sets late, the evenings are mildest and the parade is busiest, with booking ahead essential. In winter it is early and colder, but quieter, and you are home at a reasonable hour. Nature Parks does not publish nightly numbers by season, so no month can be promised to bring more birds than another. Shearwaters are back at Cape Woolamai from late September.

Staying the night

Cowes, on the north shore, is the island’s town, with its shops, cafés, beach and most of its places to stay. A night there turns a long day into an easy one: the parade without the drive back, and the island’s cliffs and beaches in the morning. Book early for summer, school holidays and race weekends, when the island fills.

On the island

The visitor centre has the cafés, toilets and shop. Nature Parks gives its opening time as noon on one page and as a couple of hours before sunset on another, so check on the day if you plan to eat there. Elsewhere, Cowes has the island’s shops, cafés and petrol. Bring water and something warm for the boardwalks; the Nobbies has no café or toilets while its centre is closed.

The drive back

After the parade you drive home in the dark, on country roads where wallabies and other wildlife cross. Go slowly until you are off the island. If you would rather not do the drive, a night in Cowes turns the evening into a weekend and lets you see Cape Woolamai in the morning light.

Making the most of it

Nearby

Phillip Island is a day from Melbourne and one of the longer ones; our day trips from Melbourne compares it with the Yarra Valley, the Dandenongs, Ballarat and the rest. If you are driving on into Gippsland, Wilsons Promontory is about two hours further east and better as a night or two than a day; the day-trips guide covers it too. Our Two Bays and the Prom itinerary puts the island and the Prom together in a six-day loop, with the Mornington Peninsula on the way.