Bushrangers Bay Walk

Moderate

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5.4km, 2-hour return walk through coastal scrub descending to Bushrangers Bay's basalt cliffs and rockpools, per parks.vic.gov.au.

☰ Trail details

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Distance

5.2 km

Est. time

1 hr 31 min

Elevation gain

134 m

Route type

Out & back

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In an emergency

Call 000 for police, fire or ambulance — Australia's emergency number works even with a weak signal, and without a SIM if any carrier has coverage.

You're in Mornington Peninsula National Park, Mornington Peninsula, VIC. Mobile reception in this area is not guaranteed — this is exactly why the offline map and GPS position on this page work without signal.

Tell someone your plan and expected return time before you set off. A PLB is the most reliable backup where there's no reception at all.

Tracks & plans

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Species to look for on this trail

Ancient trees and rare flora confirmed in this park. Spot one? Add it as a sighting pin below.

Leafy Twig-RushDocumented on this trail

Cladium procerum

Endangered — VIC: Endangered, SA: Rare, WA: Data Deficient▾

Endangered — VIC: Endangered, SA: Rare, WA: Data Deficient

Cladium procerum, known commonly as the leafy twigrush, is a species of flowering plant in the sedge family. It is found mostly in swampland and on the margins of lakes. It grows up to 2.5 m tall. It was described by Stanley Thatcher Blake in 1943.

How to spot it

Real occurrence confirmed near Mornington Peninsula National Park (Atlas of Living Australia, 2025) — no separate physical description was available on Wikipedia for this species, see the source link for more.

Family Cyperaceae · Source: Atlas of Living Australia + Wikipedia: Cladium procerum

Coast TwinleafDocumented on this trail

Roepera billardierei

Endangered — VIC: Endangered▾

Endangered — VIC: Endangered

Roepera billardierei, synonym Zygophyllum billardierei, commonly known as coast twin-leaf, is a species of plant in the family Zygophyllaceae found in temperate regions of Australia. In Tasmania, where it has only been recorded from the Furneaux Group in Bass Strait, it is listed as Rare under the state's Threatened Species Protection Act 1995.

How to spot it

Coast twin-leaf is a perennial herb with stems that spread over the ground. The stems are branched and 20–40 millimetres [mm] (0.79–1.57 in) long. The leaves are Y-shaped, with blunt tips, and up to 15 mm (0.59 in) long. The flowers are yellow and about 10 mm (0.39 in) long. The fruit is a drooping four-angled capsule about 10–12 mm (0.39–0.47 in) long, containing brown seeds. It is a scrambling plant which is found in both sheltered and exposed coastal sites where it stabilises loose sand on du

Family Zygophyllaceae · Source: Atlas of Living Australia + Wikipedia: Roepera billardierei

Photo via iNaturalist Australia (CC-BY-NC 4.0 (Int)), collected by jacksampson1

Coast Bitter-BushDocumented on this trail

Adriana quadripartita

Endangered — VIC: Endangered▾

Endangered — VIC: Endangered

Adriana quadripartita, the bitter bush, is a shrub in the family Euphorbiaceae. The species, which is endemic to southern Australia, has an erect open habit, growing to between 0.5 and 3 metres or more high.

How to spot it

Real occurrence confirmed near Mornington Peninsula National Park (Atlas of Living Australia, 2013) — no separate physical description was available on Wikipedia for this species, see the source link for more.

Family Euphorbiaceae · Source: Atlas of Living Australia + Wikipedia: Adriana quadripartita

Dune Wood-SorrelDocumented on this trail

Oxalis rubens

Endangered — VIC: Endangered▾

Endangered — VIC: Endangered

Oxalis rubens is a small herbaceous plant found in coastal areas of Australia and New Zealand. Branches are erect or ascending, up to 35 cm long, of a dull red-brown colour. The specific epithet rubens is derived from Latin, meaning reddish in colour.

How to spot it

Real occurrence confirmed near Mornington Peninsula National Park (Atlas of Living Australia, 2016) — no separate physical description was available on Wikipedia for this species, see the source link for more.

Family Oxalidaceae · Source: Atlas of Living Australia + Wikipedia: Oxalis rubens

Common Apple-BerryDocumented on this trail

Billardiera scandens

Endangered — VIC: Endangered, SA: Rare▾

Endangered — VIC: Endangered, SA: Rare

Billardiera scandens, commonly known as hairy apple berry or common apple-berry, is a small shrub or twining plant of the Pittosporaceae family which occurs in forests in the coastal and tableland areas of all states and territories in Australia, apart from the Northern Territory and Western Australia. It has a silky touch and appearance that becomes more brittle as the dense growth matures. The inflorescence consists of single or paired yellow flowers, pink-tinged yellow sepals and bright yellow petals and is attached to a hairy drooping peduncle. The summer flush produces fruit of oblong berries up to 30 mm long, initially green in colour and covered in fine hair - somewhat akin to a tiny kiwifruit in appearance.

How to spot it

Real occurrence confirmed near Mornington Peninsula National Park (Atlas of Living Australia, 2001) — no separate physical description was available on Wikipedia for this species, see the source link for more.

Family Pittosporaceae · Source: Atlas of Living Australia + Wikipedia: Billardiera scandens

Cushion Bush

Leucophyta brownii

Coastal cliff and dune daisy-shrub▾

Coastal cliff and dune daisy-shrub

A silvery, rounded daisy-family shrub endemic to Australia's southern coastline, tough enough to handle sea spray, wind, drought and frost on exposed cliffs and dunes. Wikipedia records it along coastal Victoria including the Mornington Peninsula and Sorrento, and it is documented growing at Cape Schanck, one of the four sections of Mornington Peninsula National Park.

How to spot it

A small, tangled, silvery-grey rounded shrub to about 0.7m, its tomentose (densely woolly) branchlets giving it an almost felted, ghostly look against dark cliff rock. Small white-yellow globular flowerheads about 1cm across appear in summer. Look for it clinging to exposed cliff faces and dune edges along the Coast Walk and around Cape Schanck.

Family Asteraceae · Source: Wikipedia: Leucophyta brownii

Photo: gerard (Flickr, CC BY-SA 2.0) via Wikimedia Commons