Rainbow Falls

Rainbow Falls is a small, spring-fed coastal cascade above Station Beach in the Cape Otway part of Great Otway National Park. Fresh water threads down an algae-coloured cliff and reaches the beach’s rock platform. I’d keep it in your day if you have the tide window and want a proper wild-coast detour; it’s reached on foot, not from a roadside pullout.

The Great Ocean Walk reaches Station Beach through coastal scrub and dunes; from there, the last leg follows soft sand and slippery rock to the falls. That approach needs low tide, exposed rocks and a benign swell. A tide chart alone isn’t enough if surf is running across the crossing, so turn back whenever the waves make the rocks unsafe. Published distances use different starting points, so allow time for a side trip rather than planning around one number.

A natural spring feeds the falls. Algae gives the cliff much of its colour. After steady rain, the flow tends to be stronger; through summer it may dwindle to a trickle, so the same cliff can look quite different from one visit to the next.

The water runs in narrow lines across the coloured wall before it reaches the shore. For a photo, include a strip of the rocky platform below the cliff so the fine streams have some scale. Sunlight on the spray can bring out a rainbow, but that depends on the light and flow.