Campground · Great Otway National Park
An unpowered forest camp with parrots and close-spaced pitches
Overview
Map
Plan your stop
The highest, rockiest slopes around here are a summer buffet for grizzly bears.
Great Otway Tour Guide
Parkwolf is a GPS audio tour guide for Great Otway National Park. 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 Otway audio tourRecorded for this place
Big Hill Campground: Forest and Parrots“Big Hill Campground is coming up, a grassy clearing among tall forest with thirteen unpowered sites. It's a simple forest base, but the pitches are close together, so choose somewhere else if privacy matters most.”
Plays as you drive up to Big Hill Campground in the Parkwolf Great Otway Tour Guide.
More stories near here in the app
“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!!!!”
Guide
Big Hill Campground is a 13-site campground in a grassy clearing among tall forest, near Big Hill Track and Lorne–Deans Marsh Road. It makes a practical base for mountain biking or four-wheel driving, but the small layout can feel close together when neighboring pitches are occupied. Book and pay ahead.
All sites are unpowered and hold up to six people. Sites 1–7 are tent-only; sites 8–13 can take camper trailers and caravans. Check the site details before booking if you need room for a vehicle beside your tent.
There are non-flush toilets, shared low tables and seats, and communal fireplaces. The water is non-potable, so bring drinking water and your own firewood; fires are allowed only in the fireplaces, and not on Total Fire Ban days. Take rubbish with you. Dogs aren't permitted.
The clearing is ringed by tall forest. King Parrots and Crimson Rosellas are worth watching for around camp, and a koala is possible but never guaranteed. This is a simple, shared campground rather than a secluded bush pitch.
Wildlife
204 sightingsKoalaMost seen around 6 PMSighting map
35 sightingsGrey KangarooMost seen around 6 AMSighting map
109 sightingsEchidnaMost seen around 5 PMSighting map
58 sightingsKookaburraMost seen around 6 AMSighting map
97 sightingsSwamp WallabyMost seen around 6 PMSighting map
20 sightingsBrushtail PossumMost seen around 8 PMSighting mapSighting maps show where each species has been reported across Great Otway. Wildlife moves, so no sighting is guaranteed.
Keep exploring
ModerateFive Mile Track8.2 km · 3 hr · 3.2 km awayRainforest shade, two river crossings, and a walk out to Lorne.
ModerateCora Lynn Cascades Walk4.2 km · 1.8 hr · 4.6 km awayFern shade and stepped shale cascades on a creek walk.
ModerateLemonade Creek Track4 km · 1.8 hr · 4.6 km awayTimber bridges cross fern gullies beneath tall eucalypts.
ChallengingPhantom Falls Walk: Blanket Leaf to Allenvale Mill8 km · 3.5 hr · 4.6 km awayA hard traverse from Blanket Leaf to Allenvale via Phantom Falls.
Campground · 3.5 km awayHerberts (Wymbooliel) CampgroundA simple 20-site campground for an overnight stay.
Sight · 3.7 km awaySplitter FallsA broad ledge waterfall on a challenging walk above Lorne.
Sight · 3.8 km awayStraw FallsA rain-fed waterfall detour with a tricky river crossing
Sight · 3.9 km awayErskine FallsA fern-lined cascade rewards the steep stair descent to the rockpool.
Picnic area · 4.7 km awayBlanket Leaf Picnic AreaA shaded picnic stop between Lorne and Erskine Falls.
Sight · 5.1 km awayCora Lynn CascadesA ferny forest walk to cascades spread across dark shale.
Sight · 7.6 km awayPhantom FallsA fern-lined climb ends at a 15-metre cascade.
Visitor center · 7.8 km awayLorne Visitor Information CentreFree waterfall guides make this a smart first Lorne stop.Parkwolf’s Great Otway ranking
The audio tour guide for the drive, plus offline maps, trails, and wildlife heatmaps for when the signal drops.
