Parking
Start at Aire River West Campground off Sand Road and finish beside Castle Cove Lookout. Arrange a pickup or vehicle transfer; the listed section is one way.
Overview
About Great Ocean Walk: Aire River to Castle Cove
Why go
- A varied walk from river edge to clifftop views
- A manageable section of the longer coastal route
Heads up
- Point-to-point logistics need a pickup or a planned return
Map & elevation
The route
Loading the Great Otway map
Full mapElevation0–80 m
Plan your hike
Before you go
Parking
Safety
3 active Great Otway alerts
- ClosureSeasonal campsite closures at Aire RiverMentions Aire River, referenced in this guideSeasonal closures remain in effect at Aire River through 30 October 2026; do not use the closed sites. - Aire River East: all sites are closed from 29 May to 30 October 2026 and reopen 31 October.Official details
- ClosureWye Road closed after storm and flood damageWye Road is closed until further notice because recent storm and flood damage requires road maintenance and repair works; plan around the closure.Official details
The highest, rockiest slopes around here are a summer buffet for grizzly bears.
Great Otway Tour Guide
Your drive to Great Ocean Walk: Aire River to Castle Cove, narrated.
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 trailhead
Aire River: A Picnic by the Wetlands0:00 / 0:27
“Up ahead is the Aire River day visitor area, a west-bank picnic stop beside Aire River West Campground. Stop here for a riverside break rather than a major sightseeing detour.”
Plays as you drive up to this trailhead in the Parkwolf Great Otway Tour Guide.
More stories near here in the app
- The Tiny Leaves on a Sheoak
- The Cracks That Shape a Cliff
- An Eagle Riding Rising Air
- One Breeding Season for an Antechinus
- 252 audio storiesacross Great Otway’s roads, triggered by GPS as you drive
- Wildlife heatmapsfor Koala, Grey Kangaroo, Echidna, and 13 more
- Works offlinemaps, 83 trails, 79 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 Great Ocean Walk: Aire River to Castle Cove
A short Great Ocean Walk sectionThis 3.
This 3.7-mile (6 km) one-way section runs from Aire River West Campground to Castle Cove Lookout. Allow about 2.5 hours; it is rated medium. It makes a good half-day piece of the Great Ocean Walk if you want a coastal hike without taking on the full route.
From the river to the cliffsThe walk follows Aire River for a while, then climbs gradually toward the coast.
The walk follows Aire River for a while, then climbs gradually toward the coast. From the higher sections you look across the river mouth and the shoreline. The climb is steady rather than a long flat riverside stroll.
Scrub between the viewsThe trail sometimes turns away from the cliff edge and passes through scrub, so you do not get…
The trail sometimes turns away from the cliff edge and passes through scrub, so you do not get uninterrupted ocean views. That change of scenery is part of the route: river, inland scrub, then open coast again.
Make the finish workThis is a point-to-point walk, ending beside the Castle Cove lookout.
This is a point-to-point walk, ending beside the Castle Cove lookout. Arrange a pickup or vehicle transfer before you set out. A separate sand-road return is described for this area, but its distance is not established, so the 3.7-mile figure is for the one-way walk only. At the lookout, frame the beach and headland with a little foreground scrub to show the height above the shore.
Access and rulesAire River West Campground has toilets at the start.
Aire River West Campground has toilets at the start. There is no confirmed food or drinking-water stop on the route, so plan those before setting out. Dogs are not permitted on this National Park section.
Wildlife
Wildlife in Great Otway
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.
