Friday 16 Apr 2021. During the recent school holidays we drove to Moggs Creek Picnic Area, a beautiful bushland spot in the eastern Otways hinterland just north of the Great Ocean Road hamlet of Moggs Creek. The picnic area was empty when we arrived – surprising, given the time of year, but perhaps it’s a bit out of the way.

We came to try the Ocean View Walk, a hugely enjoyable and easy 4.8 kilometre circuit through the dry woodland that characterises this part of the Otways. As its name suggests, the walk takes one to a lookout point affording splendid views of the coastline from Aireys Inlet to Eastern View and even as far as Lorne.

We ate our lunch to the delightful accompaniment of birds, then set out. Ironbark was the predominant tree around the picnic area and for the first part of the walk, but the habitat changed as we progressed.

We encountered tracts of bracken and found ourselves among Xanthorrhoea. The shift in vegetation between hillside and gully was particularly striking.

Soon the trees took on a more windswept appearance, twisted and gnarled, and we entered a zone of coastal heathland. At the end of the first leg of the walk we turned left onto Moggs Creek Track and after sixty metres or so arrived at the lookout, sitting on a ridge overlooking the Great Ocean Road and Bass Strait. The views were spectacular.

From the lookout one can see the famous Great Ocean Road Memorial Arch, built originally in 1939 (and twice replaced) to honour the World War One service personnel who built the Great Ocean Road.

This part of the Great Ocean Road is well known for its architectural gems. Everyone who drives regularly along here knows the Pole House at Fairhaven, for instance. The houses in the photo below are rather nice too.

Leaving the lookout, we crossed over Moggs Creek Track and embarked upon the return leg of the walk, again passing through an ever-changing landscape of ironbark, messmate, bracken etc etc. After forty minutes or so we arrived back at the picnic ground. What a wonderful walk!