Great Ocean Walk

Hard

Loading map…

A 104km multi-day point-to-point trek from Apollo Bay to Glenample Homestead near the Twelve Apostles, passing Cape Otway, Aire River, Johanna Beach and Ryans Den, usually walked over about eight days with seven hike-in campsites.

☰ Trail details

Hide panel — map only✕

Distance

11.22 km

Est. time

3 hr 9 min

Elevation gain

231 m

Route type

Point to point

Steepest stretch: +40m over ~300m (around the 7.8km mark)

Loading elevation profile…

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 Great Otway National Park, Apollo Bay to the Twelve Apostles, Great Ocean Road, 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

+ Add to tracks / plans

About this hike

The Great Ocean Walk runs 104km from Apollo Bay to Glenample Homestead near the Twelve Apostles, opened in 2004 as Victoria's answer to Tasmania's Overland Track and usually completed over about eight days with a chain of hike-in campsites along the way. A highlight partway along is Cape Otway Lightstation, built in 1846-48 and the oldest surviving lighthouse on the Australian mainland, still standing watch over what was once one of the most dangerous stretches of coast for shipping in the country. Beyond the lighthouse, the track alternates between cliff-top heath, remnant temperate rainforest in sheltered gullies, and long beach walks at Aire River, Johanna Beach and Ryans Den, with the coastline becoming progressively wilder toward the Twelve Apostles. Because much of the route is exposed clifftop with limited water sources, most walkers carry several days of supplies between resupply points at Apollo Bay, Cape Otway and Princetown.

In-depth guide

Great Ocean Walk: Complete Guide to Victoria's 104km Coastal Trek (Camping, Water & Wildlife)

Real stats on the 104km Great Ocean Walk from Apollo Bay to the Twelve Apostles: camping permits, water logistics, closures and wildlife.

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.

Coast CherryDocumented on this trail

Exocarpos syrticola

Endangered — VIC: Endangered▾

Endangered — VIC: Endangered

Exocarpos syrticola belongs to the sandalwood plant family (Santalaceae). It is a species endemic to Australia and found on the coastal fringes of Victoria, Tasmania, and South Australia.

How to spot it

Real occurrence confirmed near Great Otway National Park (Atlas of Living Australia, 1955) — no separate physical description was available on Wikipedia for this species, see the source link for more.

Family Santalaceae · Source: Atlas of Living Australia + Wikipedia: Exocarpos syrticola

Slender Tree-FernDocumented on this trail

Cyathea cunninghamii

Critically Endangered — QLD: Near threatened, VIC: Critically Endangered, TAS: Endangered▾

Critically Endangered — QLD: Near threatened, VIC: Critically Endangered, TAS: Endangered

Alsophila cunninghamii, synonym Cyathea cunninghamii, also known as the gully tree fern and slender tree fern, is a species of tree fern indigenous to New Zealand including North Island, South Island and Chatham Islands; also to Victoria, possibly New South Wales, southeastern Queensland, and Tasmania in Australia. It grows in damp forest, often emerging from stream gullies and riverbanks.

How to spot it

A. cunninghamii is an uncommon, slow-growing tree fern reaching up to 20 m in height and with a trunk diameter of 6–15 cm, occasionally as much as 20 cm. Fronds are tri- to tetrapinnate and 3 m or more in length. The rachis and stipe are slender, black brown, warty and covered with brown scales. Sori occur along each side of the pinnule midvein and are covered by hood-like indusia.

Family Cyatheaceae · Source: Atlas of Living Australia + Wikipedia: Cyathea cunninghamii

Southern XanthosiaDocumented on this trail

Xanthosia tasmanica

Endangered — VIC: Endangered, SA: Rare▾

Endangered — VIC: Endangered, SA: Rare

Xanthosia tasmanica is a species of flowering plant in the family Apiaceae and is endemic to southern Australia. It is an erect or ascending perennial herb with trifoliate leaves with elliptic leaflets, and white flowers in a compound umbel with one flower per ray and sometimes another flower between the rays.

How to spot it

Xanthosia tasmanica is an erect or ascending perennial herb that typically grows to a height of 20 cm (7.9 in) and has a few long spreading hairs on its stems and leaves. Its leaves are trifoliate, the leaflets elliptic or wedge-shaped, 4–15 mm (0.16–0.59 in) long and 3–8 mm (0.12–0.31 in) wide on a petiole up to 30 mm (1.2 in) long. The flowers are arranged in a compound umbel with up to 4 rays with one flower per ray and sometimes one flower between the rays. There are up to four linear, leaf-

Family Apiaceae · Source: Atlas of Living Australia + Wikipedia: Xanthosia tasmanica

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

Slender Pink-FingersDocumented on this trail

Caladenia vulgaris

Vulnerable — VIC: Vulnerable, SA: Rare▾

Vulnerable — VIC: Vulnerable, SA: Rare

Caladenia vulgaris, commonly known as summer fingers, or slender pink-fingers is a species of orchid endemic to southern Australia. It has a single, long, erect, hairy leaf and one or two pink or whitish flowers.

How to spot it

Caladenia vulgaris is a terrestrial, perennial, deciduous, herb with an underground tuber and which usually grows as solitary plants. It has a single hairy, dark green leaf, 150–270 mm long, 2–3 mm wide which is red near its base. One or two dull pinkish to white flowers about 12 mm wide are borne on a stalk 150–360 mm tall. The backs of the flowers are densely hairy and pinkish with brown bands. The dorsal sepal is 10–15 mm long, 2–4 mm wide and curves forward over the column. The lateral sepal

Family Orchidaceae · Source: Atlas of Living Australia + Wikipedia: Caladenia vulgaris

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

Bristly Shield FernDocumented on this trail

Lastreopsis hispida

Endangered — NSW: Endangered, VIC: Endangered▾

Endangered — NSW: Endangered, VIC: Endangered

Lastreopsis hispida, known as the bristly shield fern, is a common plant found in New Zealand. Less often seen in Australia, in cool rainforest areas with humus rich soils, or more rarely as an epiphyte on tree ferns or mossy logs. Listed as endangered in the state of New South Wales where it grows in a few remote sites in the Blue Mountains, such as at Mount Wilson. The specific epithet hispida is from Latin, meaning "bristly".

How to spot it

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

Family Dryopteridaceae · Source: Atlas of Living Australia + Wikipedia: Lastreopsis hispida

Myrtle Beech

Nothofagus cunninghamii

Vulnerable (IUCN) — cool temperate rainforest relict▾

Vulnerable (IUCN) — cool temperate rainforest relict

A Gondwanan southern beech that dominates cool temperate rainforest gullies of southern Victoria and Tasmania. In Victoria it grows in the deep, moist soils of the Central Highlands, Strzelecki Ranges, Wilsons Promontory and the Otway Ranges, where Great Otway National Park protects some of its best mainland stands.

How to spot it

An evergreen tree with small, dark green, triangular, toothed leaves — new growth flushes brilliant red, pink or orange in spring. Bark is rough and often moss-covered, and old specimens form a gnarled, closed rainforest canopy in sheltered fern gullies.

Family Nothofagaceae · Source: Wikipedia: Nothofagus cunninghamii

Photo: Krzysztof Ziarnek, Kenraiz (CC BY-SA 4.0) via Wikimedia Commons

Mountain Ash

Eucalyptus regnans

The world's tallest flowering plant▾

The world's tallest flowering plant

The tallest of all flowering plants on Earth, mature trees reach 70-114m in the cool, high-rainfall mountain forests of Victoria and Tasmania. In Victoria it grows in the Otway, Dandenong, Yarra and Strzelecki ranges, with Great Otway National Park holding wet forest stands in pure stands or mixed with other eucalypts.

How to spot it

A straight-trunked giant with smooth grey bark and rough brown stringy bark persisting at the base. Glossy green, lance-shaped to curved adult leaves and white flowers in groups of nine to fifteen. Needs deep loam soils and over 1,000mm of annual rainfall — look for towering wet-forest stands rather than drier ridgelines.

Family Myrtaceae · Source: Wikipedia: Eucalyptus regnans

Photo: Allthingsnative (CC BY 4.0) via Wikimedia Commons

Wildlife you might see on this trail

Animals confirmed in this park. Spot one? Add it as a sighting pin below.

Koala

Phascolarctos cinereus

IUCN Vulnerable; EPBC-listed Endangered in QLD/NSW/ACT▾

IUCN Vulnerable; EPBC-listed Endangered in QLD/NSW/ACT

The koala is an arboreal herbivorous marsupial endemic to Australia and the sole living member of the family Phascolarctidae, most closely related to wombats. It is recognisable by its stout, tailless body, large round-eared head, and dark leathery nose.

How to spot it

Look up into eucalypt canopies for a grey-to-chocolate-brown, tailless bundle wedged in a fork, often sleeping (koalas rest up to 20 hours a day). Body length 60-85 cm, males noticeably larger with a more curved nose and a visible chest gland. During breeding season males give a loud, deep snoring-and-belching bellow that carries a long way through the bush at night.

Family Phascolarctidae · Source: Wikipedia; IUCN Red List

Photo: Diliff (CC BY-SA 3.0) via Wikimedia Commons

Powerful owl

Ninox strenua

Vulnerable (NSW & Vic); IUCN Least Concern▾

Vulnerable (NSW & Vic); IUCN Least Concern

The powerful owl is Australia's largest owl, an apex forest predator of south-eastern Australia that feeds mostly on tree-dwelling possums and gliders. Though secure globally, it's listed as vulnerable in New South Wales and Victoria because it depends on large, hollow-bearing old-growth trees for nesting, which logging and land clearing keep removing.

How to spot it

A big owl, 45-65cm long with a wingspan over a metre, dark grey-brown above with bold white V-shaped barring below and a hawk-like long-tailed silhouette in flight. Listen at dusk for the male's slow, far-carrying double hoot ('whoo-hooo'); by day it roosts quietly in tall forest trees, sometimes with the remains of a possum cached on a branch below.

Family Strigidae · Source: Wikipedia

Photo: JJ Harrison (CC BY-SA 4.0) via Wikimedia Commons