Moggs Creek to Coalmine Creek Walk

Moggs Creek to Coalmine Creek Walk is a point-to-point forest route from Moggs Creek Picnic Ground to the Great Ocean Road at Eastern View. The mapped line is about 10.1 km (6.25 miles) one way; the available walking directions give 8.5 km, so use the longer figure for planning. Allow about 3½ hours for the climbs, descents and a few pauses. Arrange a car shuttle in advance: this isn’t a loop.

Begin at the western end of the picnic-ground car park, by the Ocean View Track sign. The narrow path climbs through tall ironbarks and messmates. At the management track, turn right and climb to the ridge, then follow Moggs Creek Track west and downhill. Most of the route is on unpaved, well-graded management tracks, but the climbs are real and some descents are steep.

At the clearly marked junction, turn left onto Coalmine Creek Track and descend toward the coast. Don’t continue straight on Moggs Creek Track. The directions place this turn about 5 km from the start; the mapped alignment puts it closer to 6 km. Coalmine Creek Track leads to the management gate and the road through the old development to Great Ocean Road, near the Eastern View pickup area.

The area was surveyed for coal, but the coal found was low quality. A nine-hole golf course near the coast later reverted to native vegetation. Along the walk, wattles and heath grow beneath the eucalypts, and the forest gives way to occasional ocean sounds and views near the coast.

Wrinkled Buttons flower along both tracks in late summer. The rare Black-tongue Caladenia sometimes grows beside Coalmine Creek Track. Listen for kookaburras, grey fantails and white-plumed honeyeaters; echidna diggings may show along the track edges, though seeing one is luck.

Moggs Creek Picnic Ground has toilets, picnic tables and wood-fired barbecues; bring your own wood. Leave a pickup car at Archway Car Park in Eastern View before starting. Dogs aren’t permitted in the national park; assistance dogs are allowed under Parks Victoria’s requirements.