The Great Penguin Parade at Phillip Island

If you love animals – and birds – this is the trip for you. Go to Phillip Island and see the great penguin parade at nightfall. There are a few interesting stops on the way.

First, we drive out of Melbourne to the suburb of St Kilda, where the sand-coloured Palais Theatre stands. It is Melbourne’s leading entertainment venue. Bob Hope, Joan Sutherland, Tom Jones, the Rolling Stones and many others have performed there. It is the largest seated theatre in Australia with a capacity of nearly 3,000 people. The original building of 1919 was a cinema, but it burned down in 1926 and was rebuilt.

Next to it is Luna Park’s Scenic Railway (1912), which is the oldest continuously operating roller coaster in the world. The Scenic Railway’s scaffolding is made up of 322 posts.

The first stop is Brighton, 11 km south-east of Melbourne, named after Brighton in England. We stop at Dendy Street Beach with its 82 colourful beach boxes. Bathing boxes in Brighton existed as far back as 1862. By 1929 there were between 100 and 200 of them. They were basically changing rooms for Victorians, originally near the sea, but later moved back. They were also moved along the coast several times. The present ones were placed there in 1934.

They are the same as they were over a hundred years ago. Alterations are forbidden. They retain their Victorian architecture, timber frames, weatherboard sidings, and corrugated iron roofs, and have no electricity or running water.

Only residents paying local council rates can buy them. Look out for the red and white striped bathing box 76B. Nick a grandfather of ten, and his wife Ivanka, bought it for $337,000 in April 2018. They are undoubtedly an investment and a good place for a fashion shoot.

The second stop is an hour away, where we have lunch, Moonlit Sanctuary Wildlife Conservation Park in Pearcedale.

It’s 10 hectares of bushland, inspired by the work of Gerald Durrell, the British naturalist and author, and dedicated to the conservation of endangered species.

Buy a couple of bags of animal food and feed the kangaroos and wallabies.

Listen to a keeper giving a presentation – these take place every half an hour. We saw one on the adorable 1 year old baby koala born in the sanctuary.

The highlight is the wildlife show at 2.20 pm, where an experienced keeper describes the behaviour of cockatoos, dingoes, barn owls, tawny frogmouths and others. She has the animals and birds with her and clearly there is an incredible bond between them.

The park won the Victorian Tourism Award in Ecotourism.

We travel on to Woolamai (Surf) Beach, the longest and most exposed beach on Phillip Island with its golden sand, before motoring on to Cowes for dinner.

Cowes has a vibe, lots of restaurants and shops and a lovely north-facing beach.

Then on to Nobbies Lookout for a spectacular stroll along the boardwalks with staggering views over the headland. You may well see penguins in their burrows.

Then the highlight: The Penguin Parade at Phillip Island. There are thousands of Little Penguins, who come out of the sea at dusk, full of fish in their bellies, to waddle back to their nests in the dunes and feed their young. They are the smallest of the 17 penguin species and the only penguin that lives permanently in Australia. No photography is allowed.

We travelled with Go West Tours in a comfortable (small – 24 people max) coach and friendly lady driver guide, Yazmin, pictured here. Highly recommended. They have a very efficient booking system on line.

The Great Penguin Parade at Phillip Island