Parking
Start at the Point Roadknight Beach car park and finish at Urquhart Bluff. O’Donohue Road, Gulch Gap, Guvvos and Hutt Gully have access points along the coast. Arrange a pickup at the far end or walk back along the beach.
Overview
About Beach Combing Walk (Point Roadknight to Urquhart Bluff)
Why go
- A long sandy shoreline with Split Point Lighthouse in view.
- Several named beach accesses let you shorten the outing.
Heads up
- Low-tide timing matters for comfortable beach passage.
- The point-to-point route needs a pickup or a roughly 9 km return.
Map & elevation
The route
Loading the Great Ocean Road map
Full mapElevation0–23 m
Plan your hike
Before you go
Parking
Safety
7 active Great Ocean Road alerts
- ClosureLorne-area walking trails closed after flood and storm damageSeveral walking trails near Lorne remain closed; do not enter closed tracks. - Phantom Falls Walk is temporarily closed because flood and storm damage affected the trail and structures.Official details
- ClosureWye Road closed after storm and flood damageWye Road is closed until further notice for road maintenance and repairs following storm and flood damage; do not use the road. Check current Great Otway National Park conditions before travelling.Official details
The highest, rockiest slopes around here are a summer buffet for grizzly bears.
Great Ocean Road Tour Guide
Your drive to Beach Combing Walk (Point Roadknight to Urquhart Bluff), narrated.
Parkwolf is a GPS audio tour guide for Great Ocean Road. As you drive, it chimes in with what’s ahead: hidden gems, upcoming stops, history, geology, and wildlife, right through your car’s speakers.
See the Great Ocean Road audio tourRecorded for this trailhead
Point Roadknight0:00 / 0:29
“Up ahead is Point Roadknight, where a low rocky point and reef shelter the bay from the open surf. I'd stop here for a beach break, especially at low tide when more of the rock pools and formations are exposed.”
Plays as you drive up to this trailhead in the Parkwolf Great Ocean Road Tour Guide.
More stories near here in the app
- Anglesea Main Beach and River Mouth
- A Kangaroo's Fifth Foot
- Anglesea Golf Club Kangaroo Tours
- Urquhart Bluff Circuit
- 181 audio storiesacross Great Ocean Road’s roads, triggered by GPS as you drive
- Wildlife heatmapsfor Koala, Kangaroo, Little Penguin, and 13 more
- Works offlinemaps, 109 trails, 99 places, and audio download before you lose signal
- CarPlay readysimple controls built for the drive
“Fantastic app with many points of information… It’s great to just turn on while you’re driving and it gives you an audio tour of the national Park. We love it!!!!”
Trail guide
Hiking Beach Combing Walk (Point Roadknight to Urquhart Bluff)
The walkThis is the 4.5 km (2.
This is the 4.5 km (2.8 mile) one-way beach walk from Point Roadknight to Urquhart Bluff on the Surf Coast Walk. Allow about 1¼ hours for the sandy shoreline; the published walking estimate is 1 hour 7 minutes, but soft sand and beach stops slow the pace. It is a point-to-point route, not a loop, so arrange a pickup at Urquhart Bluff or walk back for roughly 9 km total.
Start with the tidePlan around low tide.
Plan around low tide. The beach is the route, and the useful walking space changes with the water; no precise safe tide window is published. O'Donohue Road, Gulch Gap, Guvvos and Hutt Gully give you ways onto or off the beach, so you can shorten the outing by turning around at an access point. Check the tide and local beach conditions before setting out.
Keep the lighthouse in viewSplit Point Lighthouse stays visible across the route, with long sand, surf and low coastal…
Split Point Lighthouse stays visible across the route, with long sand, surf and low coastal scrub filling the foreground. If you stop for a photo, include some beach or water around the lighthouse; the surrounding coast gives the small beacon its scale. At the Urquhart Bluff end, pause to look along the shore before leaving the beach.
Wildlife and accessLook out for beach-nesting birds and give resting seals room.
Look out for beach-nesting birds and give resting seals room. Dogs are prohibited on Point Roadknight point and backbeach year-round, so this is not a dog walk. Point Roadknight Beach has a barbecue facility, and public toilets are listed at Urquhart Bluff; there is no food or drinking water listed along the beach itself.
Wildlife
Wildlife in Great Ocean Road
900 sightingsKoalaMost seen around 5 PMSighting map
358 sightingsKangarooMost seen around 6 PMSighting map
49 sightingsLittle PenguinMost seen around 8 PMSighting map
155 sightingsEchidnaMost seen around 6 PMSighting map
33 sightingsFur SealMost seen around 6 PMSighting map
59 sightingsRed-necked WallabyMost seen around 6 AMSighting mapSighting maps show where each species has been reported across Great Ocean Road. Wildlife moves, so no sighting is guaranteed.
