We had a cycling event to participate in with the kids, so took the opportunity to do some weekend camping in Wonthaggi, Victoria. We grabbed our family tent, loaded up the car, and headed off for a short drive down the Bass Highway towards Phillip Island. Wonthaggi sits 130kms from Melbourne, veering off towards Inverloch and Wonthaggi from the Phillip Island road.
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We stayed at Coalfields Caravan & Residential Park which is right in the heart of town opposite the Wonthaggi Hospital and at the end of the main street. A short walk puts you amongst the supermarkets, shops, cafes and restaurants. Coalfields has a great camp kitchen and eating area, and we set up the tent in the grassed area opposite.
Also onsite is a really decent shower block, a pool and plenty of room for the kids to ride their bikes and scooters.
A short 10 minute drive from Wonthaggi is the seaside town of Inverloch. Inverloch has a great patrolled beach area at the Surf Life Saving Club, and a big beach area down by the foreshore.
There is a Farmers Market regularly which really is one of the better ones going around. We’d been there previously, and loaded up on honey, fruit and vegetables and the best caramalised nuts going around!
The weather was a little overcast, but we went down to the beach anyway for a bit of rock skimming and teepee building. A big shift of sand has resulted in almost a dessert leading out to the opening of the inlet to Venus Bay, and all of the locals and visitors have collectively built and continue to build a series of teepees throughout.
Whilst away we were contacted by Rachael on our Facebook page who tipped us off to visit the State Coal Mine. Now we had seen these signs, mostly in poor condition around Wonthaggi and in passing previous trips. It had never really grabbed us, but thought we would follow through on the advice of someone local.
WOW! The State Coal Mine is unbelievable. They have a large Café, entry is free and on top of the amazing real life coal mine facilities there was a great BBQ and Picnic area complete with Fairy Garden. For the record Jed won the fairy search, with 66 fairies found!
We walked around the grounds, checking out the farm animals and canaries, looking at a home setup as it would have been back when the mine was in operation, explored the washing, changing and living facilities, an explosives storage block, the bike shed, an old steam train and more.
We had a great time as a family in Wonthaggi. Whilst there we were impressed by the ammenties in the town, the amount of activity such as bike riders, joggers and walkers and the list of things to do locally and within 10 minutes. We had a short weekend, but will definitiely be back to check out things like the Bunurong Coastal Drive, the Dinosaur Dig, the Bass Coast Rail Trail and the Victorian Desalanation Plant Ecological Reserve.