With the price of fuel skyrocketing due to the Gulf war we decided to pivot from a New South Wales road trip in March 2026 to one in our local Victorian backyard. We packed up the van with bikes, beach towels and hiking boots and headed to Gippsland to discover an array of gourmet treats, rail trails, endless golden beaches and towering trees in the Strzelecki ranges. What a cornucopia of experiences.
The Great Southern Rail Trail
The epic Great Southern Rail Trail runs for 130 Kilometres and through 14 towns and villages from Nyora to Port Albert. It’s a packed gravel flat track for most of the way with some pine needle matting or stringy bark covering the trail in some areas. The train line was originally built to transport coal, timber and dairy which the region is still famous for although wine and gastronomy now trump the coal and timber industries. We did two key sections of the trail: 1. Nyora to Korrumburra and 2. Meeniyan to Fish Creek.
Nyora to Korrumburra section of the Great Southern Rail Trail in Victoria
We started our journey from Loch and parked our motorhome on the old bitumen tennis court at the Loch Memorial Reserve which is right next to the suspension bridge. For $25 a night we got an unpowered site with access to the sports clubs toilets and showers. Plus front row seats to the initial little league footy and netball training for the season!
Loch is a very small but cute collection of cafes and gift stores – many of which only open Friday to Sunday (we were there on a Wednesday). We took the gentle uphill gravel rail trail 15 kilometres to Korumburra passing through groves of eucalypt and pines, then into more open scrubland with tea tree and banksia and past the old abandoned rail stations of Bena, Jeetho and Whitelaw and into the country town of Korumburra where they are restoring the grand old railway station. We stumbled across a gourmet collective called The Coterie where we discovered the apparently legendary Tsuko Japan café inside. We enjoyed the most delicious, healthy, tasty Japanese bowls then ordered a slice of carrot cake to take away from the other café in the Coterie. We then rode back to Loch and decided to go another 5km on to the little hamlet of Nyora where the trail starts. There was nothing open for dinner in Loch on a Wednesday night so we cooked at the van, and played boules on the footy oval once the Little Leagues session had finished.
2. Meeniyan to Fish Creek.
The next leg of the Great Southern Rail Trail we took was just 40 mins drive down the road to the super cute town of Meeniyan where we parked in the Recreation Reserve where we would spend the night for $10 ‘donation’. Meeniyan is 2-3 times the size of Loch and has many delicious cafes to choose from.
Meeniyan also has two gourmet café-restaurants (Trulli and Manhobs at Moos) plus a few bakeries, supermarket, nice gift stores and a pub. We didn’t get to go to Manhobs but the menu looked amazing. We truly loved Trulli – an Italian foodstore/pizza café – the owners come from Alborabella – the home of the Trulli houses in Apulia, Italy. We bought olive bread, ham off the bone and a little pot of the most delicious Tiramisu, for lunch and the next day went back for croissants and coffee. We were keen on one of their woodfired pizzas and hand made gelatos but these are only open on the weekends.
We rode 18 km to Fish Creek through the old abandoned rail stops of Burra and Buffalo and Stony Creek – this last one had picnic tables and toilets – very handy. We stopped in at the birdhide near Stony Creek and looked at the vast array of birds enjoying the reclaimed water pond. We rolled into Fish Creek a little after 1pm and took a look up at the top shops first up the hill – where there are a couple of nice handicraft stores and a French coffee shop but they had sold out of baguettes so we walked through the little park in the middle down to the Pub which we’d heard was very good but we wanted something light so opted for Long John Pickels café across the road for lunch instead where we had a delicious veggie burger and a lamb gozleme.
We visited the Alison Lester gallery and bookstore and wished that the Ride the Wild Goat bric-a-brac store was open as it looked very curious – but we did get to wander through his outdoor sculpture gallery next door before hopping back on our bikes and riding the 18km back to Meeniyan. Footy training was again on at the Meeniyan oval as well as netball training and after watching some of the local talent we walked in to the Meeniyan pub for dinner – about the only place open mid week for dinner.
A little delight in Port Albert
On our way out of Meeniyan, we stopped in at Port Albert for a pic-nic lunch and enjoyed one of the most delicious crispy potato cakes we’ve ever tasked from the little kiosk on the marina! There’s a big fish and chip cafe out the end of the pier near the giant ocean buoy but we opted for the low key snack. We enjoyed the Nooramunga Marine and coastal path which takes in part of the Old Port Trail. It was reassuring to see so many mangroves as these power packed plants capture enormous amounts of carbon dioxide, storing it in the soil for centuries, making them indispensable in reducing greenhouse gases. It looked like you could stay overnight in the marina carpark as we saw a few vans set up.
Glorious rainforests in Tarra Bulga National Park
We had never been to this remarkable rainforest in the Strzelecki Ranges before so were keen to discover Tarra Bulga in South Gippsland and its original cool temperate rainforest. We (rather foolishly) followed the Google Maps route into the Visitor Information centre which took us on the narrow gravel logging road in! With our 3 tonne truck-motorhome, we navigated the narrow bends desperately hoping that all the logging truck had gone home by Friday afternoon and thankfully we didn’t encounter any! Tip – take the Traralgon-Balook Road or the Tarra Valley Road in as these are sealed – all other roads are dirt. The benefit of our drive in was that we were surrounded by giant Mountain Ash trees, beautiful fern gullies and ancient myrtle beeches without another soul in sight!
Unfortunately, the Visitor Information Centre in Balook was closed when we arrived around 3pm on a Friday and the sign said they would only open occasionally as they did not have enough volunteers to man the centre – so don’t count on this being open. We read the information boards and planned to do the 1.2km walk to Corrigan’s Suspension Bridge, the next day – keen to see the rainforest canopy, and views of the fern gully on the forest floor below.
We wound back down part of the Grand Ridge Road and into Tarra – the first little hamlet out of the National park where we had a campsite reserved for 2 nights at the Tarra Valley Retreat. This woodsy campground has a couple of small cabins and a decent amenities block and you can have open fires in the designated fire pits dotted about the campground. Its right on the road and the river and with very little traffic coming along the road after 5pm the river sounds happily dominate.
We were excited to see only 3 other people in the campground and we set up a fire in one of the fire pits by the river and played a game of boules, enjoying the fading light. Half way through our game a large 4WD and caravan pulled up and we asked if we were playing boules in their spot? A lovely lady informed us that she was there with the Truckies Social Club who had booked out the entire campground for the weekend and that from now until midnight they’d all be rolling in.
With a sigh we moved our boules game and firepit down to the river flats where we managed to enjoy a peaceful twilight dinner before too many truckles rolled in. The next morning the campground was chock-full and with the low cloud and rain, we thought it best to move on to the coast rather than stay another night. So we never got to do any of the Tarra Bulga NP walks but plan to go back another time, in a smaller car to explore as it looked beautiful!
On our way out we visited Agnes Falls (near Toora) andThe tallest single-span waterfall in Gippsland (59m), falling into a deep gorge within the Strzelecki Ranges. There is a well made waterfall loop walk that takes you around the top of the falls then has a good lookout where you can see the water tumble off the granite escarpment. Well worth a visit as even at the end of summer it had good water in it.
Triple treats in Coastal Gippsland at Golden Beach, Metung and Lakes Entrance.
Golden Beach
We decided to spend a night at Golden Beach on one of the free campsites behind the sand-dunes and found a spot without too many people set up. We enjoyed a long walk along the ‘golden’ shores of 90 mile beach stopping to chat to people fishing all the way along. We had a quiet night listening to tales about ‘the one that got away’ from our neighbours in our camping spot and enjoyed another long walk along the beach the next morning. There are no toilets in any of these free camp spots so you have to be self-sufficient (like us) to stay there or drive up to the public toilet block in Golden Beach. There’s nothing in Golden Beach except a Foodworks supermarket- so this is really is an off the beaten path fishing spot.
Metung Hot Springs
We enjoyed a superb Sunday afternoon at the beautiful, tranquil Metung Hot Springs which backs on to the golf course and overlooks Lakes Entrance. It was a beautiful sunny day and we wandered up to the ridge to dunk in the famous ‘barrels’, stretched out in the Canadian cedar hot tubs and walked along the reflexology rock path squealing as the rocks massaged our underfoot. It was trés tranquil and we came away feeling soporific and ready for an early night.
Lakes Entrance
Lakes Entrance surprised us with some great walks and cafes and a lovely long bike path too. We stayed at the footy ground again and enjoyed watching more footy training and also ran around the oval each morning enjoying the spongy turf. Everyone gets a lake side spot here and the van park is pretty chokers with the grey-brigade drinking G&Ts at 4pm and throwing a token fishing rod in the lake now and then. Theres only one toilet block so you have to be prepared to hike to the loo and showers but it looked to us like most people were self sufficient here. It’s an easy walk into Lakes Entrance town where you’ll find half a dozen fish ‘n chip shops, a couple of pubs and a pretty good Thai restaurant – Nick’s Thai which shares the same property as the outdoors Servo bar.
We enjoyed the 5km Entrance Loop walk that leaves from the kiosk across the pedestrian bridge and takes you through coastal scrub and out to the entrance of Lakes Entrance where we were lucky enough to see dolphins guiding a fishing trawler in and seals playing near the entrance too. We swam on the protected ocean beach and had two incredible sunsets and sunrises which we could see from our van park as well as along the marina. We’ll definitely be be back to this magical part of the world!
