Mornington Peninsula & Point Nepean

Our friend Marie who has been staying with us recently whilst she is between flats, kindly offered us use of her car when she was away in New Zealand.  Not being ones to look a gift horse in the mouth, we jumped at the opportunity with zealous and took off on an exploratory trip of the Mornington Peninsula one sunny Saturday morning.

I wasn't sure what to expect of the Peninsula, which runs down the eastern side of Port Phillip Bay, but was so pleasantly surprised by the beautiful beaches and the stunning (and massive) houses/mansions.  Sorrento and Portsea are definitely the "Hamptons" of Victoria.  Infinity pools, tennis courts and perfectly manicured lawns abound outside massive stone dwellings fit for royalty and the very wealthy alike.  Here, beach boxes (small, colourfully painted wooden huts along the beach, no bigger than a very snug single garage) sell for hundreds of thousands of dollars.  A bit steep for a place to store your deck chairs, but anyway.

We had a lovely walk along the beach and short pier at Portsea followed by a lunch in the sun on the lawns of the Portsea Hotel.  Beautiful views of the Bay and great fish and chips.  Just how summer should be!

After lunch we headed into the Point Nepean reserve for a tour of the park.  Point Nepean is a fascinating place which has played many an important role in Victorian and wider Australian history.  Within the reserve, which we toured by tractor trailer, there is an old quarantining station where immigrants to Australia were held once they came off ships with various illnesses.  The old "flu houses" are still standing, but I must admit the word "prison" came to mind when driving past rows and rows of these sad looking uniform huts.  Not the best welcome to one's new home, I could imagine.

The point itself was used during both the first and second world wars, with the first shots fired from Australian soil in each war coming from Fort Nepean.  There's a maze of tunnels beneath the cliffs where ammunitions were stored and where those on look out must have slept after their shift ended.

Sadly, despite having amazing beach all along the coast, all are out of bounds due to there being unexploded ammunition buried in the sand.  The Point was used as an army based and has only really been opened to the public for the first time in over 150 years.  The local govt/council is working hard to clear the beaches for recreational use.

Cheviot Beach, on the way to the point is a pretty controvercial one as it's where Australian Prime Minister Harold Holt went missing while diving in December 1967.  His body was never found...

All in all, a pretty interesting place and well worth a visit.  Can't wait to get back to the Peninsula for a weekend and to explore the local wineries, which we didn't have time to do on our daytrip.