Bird Rock Lookout

Bird Rock Lookout is a clifftop coastal viewpoint above Jan Juc Surf Beach, along the Surf Coast Walk. It is worth a quick pause for a broad look across Bass Strait and the coast toward Bells Beach. You can make this a short stop off Ocean Boulevard or fold it into a longer walk along the headland.

Jan Juc Surf Beach stretches east; west, the shoreline leads toward Bells Beach and Point Addis. Look for surfers and the line of reef breaks below. Swell and visibility change what you can pick out. For a photo, keep the beach's curve in the foreground and let the cliff line carry your eye along the coast.

The name comes from a rock formation on the shore platform below the lookout. Here, grey marl wears away faster than the harder limestone above it, leaving limestone blocks on the shore as the cliffs erode. The wider Jan Juc cliffs also yielded fossils of Janjucetus, an extinct whale named for the town after remains were found there in the 1990s.