10-07-2025
Here are two of Australia's most stunning port towns; but which one's for you?
Port Fairy Lighthouse.
By Amy Cooper and Mal Chenu
Updated July 10 2025 - 3:58pm, first published 5:30pm Subscribe now for unlimited access.
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They say any port in a storm, but for me there's just one: Port Fairy, the delightful finale to Victoria's Great Ocean Road. Even prettier than its name, the little seaside settlement straight from coastal cuteness central casting is a cinematographer's dream of historic bluestone buildings, whitewashed whalers' cottages, a picturesque lighthouse, 19th-century churches, wide streets lined with lofty Norfolk pines and fishing boats bobbing in a sparkling marina at the mouth of the River Moyne.
It's the stuff of storybooks and sea shanties. And significantly more soothing than a sojourn with Mal as a caged canape for the sharks of South Australia's seafood capital. I'd rather stroll Port Fairy's jetties and boardwalks, watching hauls of crayfish and abalone pour in from the Southern Ocean, breathing the brine-tinged breeze as it sets masts clinking in chorus with the schooners raised around the hearth of Victoria's oldest pub, the Merrijig Inn - a riverbank fixture since the 1840s. It's a place to potter and linger in cafes, boutiques and galleries, or rewind time on a heritage walk, taking in 50-plus buildings classified by the National Trust.
All good Fairy tales have their dark side, and here it dwells out beyond the sheltered harbour, in the drama of a jagged coastline carved by turbulent swells, buffeting gales and the rages of long-dormant volcanoes. If you're a sailor, Port Fairy's scary. It marks the westward point of Victoria's Shipwreck Coast, a graveyard for some 700 stricken vessels, 19 of which lie in Port Fairy Bay and surrounding waters, often eerily visible from the town's Maritime and Shipwreck Heritage Walk.
Port Fairy. Picture: Visit Victoria
You can spot the happier spectacle of southern right whales and blue whales raising their families in winter, or the southern hemisphere's largest colony of fur seals at nearby Lady Julia Percy (Deen Maar) island, Australia's only offshore volcano. Cruises from Port Fairy take you close to both. On land, in what sounds like a wacky cartoon storyline, more than 200 koalas and kangaroos as well as emus, wombats, swans, blue wrens and miscellaneous waterbirds all live together in the extinct crater of another volcano. Criss-crossed with easy walks, Tower Hill Wildlife Reserve is a magma-nificent setting for native wildlife - even better when discovered with Indigenous guides from Worn Gundidj Aboriginal tours.
Another surprise: teeny Port Fairy has a supersized capacity for partying. The 4000-ish population swells to 50,000 every March when the four-day Port Fairy Folk Festival brings top artists to town - and across the year a very merry Fairy stages jazz, literary, music, spring, winter and Irish festivals.
Mal might think the world's his oyster over there in SA's shellfish central, but this festive fishing village is Australia's fairy dinkum premium port.
Our brains create associations, and this is especially true for places. Rottnest Island equals quokkas, Paris equals the Eiffel Tower, Wuhan equals Covid, and Springfield, Ohio, equals "They're eating the dogs". One and a half of these may be apocryphal.
A feast in seafood capital Port Lincoln. Picture: SATC
And Port Lincoln equals Dean Lukin, who won a gold medal in weightlifting at the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics. Admittedly, the modest tuna fisherman was aided by an Eastern Bloc boycott of the Games and the absence of steroid-sodden Soviets, but the performance turned Dean into an overnight Aussie hero and shone a bright light on the town. It was, and remains, the stuff of legend.
As is the southern bluefin tuna, which is as sought-after around the world as seat 11A on a Boeing Dreamliner. Port Lincoln celebrates the feisty fishy at its Tunarama Festival, which attracts visitors from far and wide, many of whom take part in the marquee event, the tuna toss. But even if you're not a tosser, you can still enjoy the street parade and the cornucopia of food and wine tastings that showcase South Australia's epicurean Eyre Peninsula.
Port Lincoln is the "Seafood Capital of Australia", and restaurants and cafes knock out great Australian bites of local flathead, whiting, garfish, yellowtail kingfish, crayfish, sardines, octopus, abalone, gummy shark, Coffin Bay oysters, Spencer Gulf king prawns and tons of tasty tuna.
If you'd rather hang out with sea creatures than eat them, you can check out whales from June to October, swim with dolphins and Australian sea lions (the "puppy dogs of the sea") at Seal Cove and go great white shark cage diving on a day trip to the Neptune Islands.
Wild encounters off Port Lincoln. Picture: King Roberto
Twitchers flock here to see greater crested terns, rock parrots, fan-tailed cuckoos, black-shouldered kites, sooty oystercatchers and endangered white-bellied sea eagles, the second-largest bird of prey in Australia.
Port Lincoln is so awesome it was once considered a potential site for South Australia's capital. But long before that, the Barngarla, Nauo and Wirangu people wandered the area, foraging and, you guessed it, fishing. Untamed Escapes offers an exploration of the region's Indigenous heritage, lore and fishing techniques, including a wild bushfoods lunch.
Australia's premier "Port" also boasts railway and maritime museums, galleries, gorgeous beaches, yachting, scuba diving, game fishing (of course), walking trails, vineyards and national parks. There's a cool street-art trail and noteworthy statues of triple Melbourne Cup-winner Makybe Diva (owned by another local tuna fisherman), and Matthew Flinders (who named the town) and his cat, for some reason.
Amy can spin her Fairy tale, but if you really want to live happily ever after, head to Port Lincoln.
