The best time to visit the penguins at Phillip Island
View from the Nobbies, Phillip Island
On a slow news week in Melbourne, more than one newspaper announced Miley Cyrus spent NYE at Phillip Island. It’s not a typical island resort for Hollywood starlets, and probably not the best place to come for celebrity spotting. That said, it does have it’s own red carpet style walk every night, which plenty of people come along to watch – it’s the Penguin parade.
Little Penguins at Phillip Island
Every night at dusk, hundreds of little penguins emerge from the rough surf of the Southern Ocean, and parade across the beach to their burrows on Phillip Island. Crossing the wide beach is perilous, potentially exposing them to predators. Watching them hesitate as the surf tumbles onto the beach and then make a run for it across the sand is truly endearing. The penguins are small, only about 30 cm tall, so seeing them on the beach can be difficult, especially as the sun goes down. But once the beach crossing is complete, tourists make their way back to the visitors centre along boardwalks taking a similar route to the penguins, which provides an opportunity to see them up close.
The penguin parade is popular. An excellent example of ecotourism, it is very carefully managed. Tourists enter and leave via an informative visitor’s centre. Boardwalks connect the visitors centre with the viewing point on the beach. This structure is simply concrete benches, as low impact as possible, but get there early, it gets busy. Staff ensure people are behaving, photography at this time is forbidden because flashes dazzle the penguins. It is possible to book tickets ahead of timethough not essential.
When to go
Every day, rain or shine, the penguins waddle their way up the beach. However, since the Southern coast of Victoria can be chilly, and the excursion may involve an hour of sitting on a concrete block waiting, going in summer is a better option. A mid-week visit in February, after school has gone back, is probably the best option to reduce your exposure to crowds , but not freeze.
Other Phillip Island attractions
There are plenty of other things to do at Phillip Island including
-Brush up on your surfing at Cape Woolamai, or find a family friendly front beach at Cowes
-Stroll along the boardwalk at the Nobbies to check out the seal colony and the blowhole
-Explore the koala conservation centre
Even if you’re not a celebrity trying to dodge the media, it’s well worth a visit!
This post is part of Photo Friday, hosted by Delicious Baby. Click on the links to see travel photos from around the world.
This sounds like something I would definitely want to do. We’ve been able to watch puffins several times-endearing little birds in their own way as well-but I’ve yet to be able to go penguin watching, or to Australia for that matter!
Hey!
We visited Phillip Island in 2000 with our then 3-year-old. We were lucky enough to see the penguins coming in from the water at dusk and it was magical.
We raved about it to everyone when we came home to Seattle.
It’s definitely a great thing for families. Thanks for stopping by.
I’d love to see puffins. Not too many in the Southern hemisphere though!
Visiting the penguins is a great adventure. We took my (then) 3 yo and 1yo last summer. If you are taking young kids here are a few tips. It was still cold and very windy even though it was December, so rug up. The penguins don’t start coming up out of the water until dusk which at this time of year can be quite late (9ish) and it happens VERY slowly. They are also quite a long way away which makes it difficult for young kids to spot them. We found that our kids got really bored waiting for the penguins to arrive and also as they were coming out of the water but they loved watching the penguins from the boardwalk. At this time of year there were also lots of fluffy “toddler penguins” that were coming out of the burrows to meet their parents coming up from the water – we all loved this! I would recommend arriving late to minimise wait time (you’ll still be able to get a look at them coming out of the water as people start to disperse before they are all out), take a pram as it’s quite a walk from the carpark, spend most of your time on the boardwalk where you’ll get a good look at the penguins – they are really very cute and it is wonderful to see them in their natural enviornment.
@SMiles. Great tips for seeing the penguins with young kids. Thank you.