Fiji Memorial Walk

Fiji Memorial Walk is an about 7 km return out-and-back from Wreck Beach Car Park. Follow the Great Ocean Walk through coastal bush, then take the Memorial Walk spur to the stone on the Moonlight Head cliffs and return the same way. Allow around 2½ hours as a practical estimate; no official walking time is published. It’s a good choice if you want a longer coastal walk with a real piece of local history at the end.

The barque Fiji ran aground near Moonlight Head on 6 September 1891. Fourteen sailors and local rescuer Arthur Wilkinson died. Wilkinson had already saved a drowning man before losing his life while trying to help the shipwrecked crew. Local people raised money for the memorial, which was installed on the cliffs in March 1892. After vegetation hid it for years, access was restored and the track and a replica of the original white picket fence were rebuilt; the monument is now on the Victorian Heritage Register.

The car park is off Moonlight Head Road; the approach from the Great Ocean Road includes about 4.5 km of gravel road. The Fiji Memorial Walk is the cliff-top route to the stone. The steep stairway down to Wreck Beach and the shipwreck anchors is a separate outing, so choose this walk for the memorial and its story rather than the beach.

The white memorial and replica fence sit among coastal grasses and shrubs above the Southern Ocean. Pause at the stone and look back through the scrub toward the water; that setting is part of why the monument is worth walking out to.