Hike to Fort Nepean

Starting at the car park, you can choose to either head to the visitors centre (north east of the car park) to look at the information boards or you can head straight to the walk. At the visitors centre, you can arrange for a shuttle back from the fort if you wish or there are also washrooms available.

Once you're ready for your walk, head to Coles Track, which starts near the Quarantine Station (you won't be able to miss the collection of buildings towards the water north of the car park). If you're enjoy history, these buildings are really interesting! You can take a look in/around these where the parks department has lots of interesting facts. Once you're ready, walk on the path until you see a junction and a path heading to your right down to the beach.

Walk along the beach until it ends and you reach a trail heading into the trees. Look out for wildlife along here, including seals and starfish washed up on shore!

Follow the trail leading up to Fort Nepean, following it right where there are junctions in the road, looking out for some stunning views of Port Phillip. You'll start to see evidence of the fort along this part of the trail, where there are stations set up to defend the fort before you end up getting to the fort itself. 

Continue along the track until you reach a paved road, which brings you up to the fort You can spend hours exploring everything. The remainder of the walk, you can explore both the underground and above ground sections of the fort. The parks department has put up a lot of information on the different areas and what they were used for. Some highlights of the fort include the disappearing guns, lookout posts looking off into the Pacific Ocean, and Quarantine Station. Continue along through the fort until you reach the end of the peninsula, where you can look over the water to Point Lonsdale, watching the ships battle the waves into the Pacific from the much calmer port.

When you decide to head back, walk back along the way you came. If you wish to have a change of scenery, you can continue to walk along Coles Track (the track you joined after coming up from the beach). To do so, after passing the last fort outpost, at the junction where you came up from the beach, head back along the track to the right. Continue along the track until you reach the Quarantine Station where you started, north of the car park.