As well as the scenic Great Ocean Road, you can get to Port Fairy by the Princes Highway, providing a more direct route from Melbourne.

Positioned along the Moyne River as it flows into the Southern Ocean, just west of Warrnambool, this beautiful coastal town is a great place to make base from which to explore the area, with the added attractions of nearby towns, as well as vineyards, The Grampians and Mount Ecles National Park.

Port Fairy offers beautiful ocean views and river views, has a range of good accommodation, restaurants, cafes and boutique shopping.
 

When a sealer named Captain James Wishart in the 1820s, found shelter in a bay from a fierce southern storm he named the area Port Fairy, after his small cutter called ‘The Fairy’. By the early 1830s other sealers and whalers from Tasmania were found fishing regularly on the southern coast of Victoria. IN 1835 a ship builder and entrepreneur from Launceston named John Griffiths, was to set up a permanent whaling station just off the coast, on what is now known as Griffiths Island. Others came to settle on the mainland including John Cox of Clarendon also from Tasmania, who built the first store on the banks of the Moyne River in 1839.

In 1843 a Sydney solicitor, James Atkinson, was to receive a grant of land, that totalled 5,120 acres, west of the Moyne River. This was known as a ‘Special Survey’, where the government of New South Wales encouraged development and settlement of the Port Phillip district of New South Wales. Atkinson now owned the area which encompassed the fledgling town of Port Fairy. He was to change the name of the town to Belfast, after his native city in Ireland, surveyed and planned the township, encouraged prominent businessmen and others to settle here, and embarked on a project to encourage migration from England, Ireland and Scotland. Many families came directly to the area, whilst others landed at Portland Bay, Geelong or Port Phillip and travelled overland to Port Fairy. James Atkinson died in 1865, but his estate was to hold title to the Survey until 1885 when the Great Land Sale was held, and all remaining lots were sold. The town reverted to the original name of Port Fairy by a special Act of Parliament in 1887.

Check out our listing of Port Fairy accommodation, Shipwreck Coast accommodation and Great Ocean Road accommodation. In addition to our listed online travel guide information, contact the local tourism visitor centre for your destination for more attractions, tours, local maps and other information.