Peaceful Portarlington

Anthony Baxter shares one of his favourite spots - Port Phillip's Portarlington.

Portarlington is within Melbourne’s Port Phillip bay and sits on the north side of the Bellarine peninsula. It is more or less 20nm from the northern bay clubs and marinas (a little more from Williamstown, less from Sandringham), roughly 15nm from both of Geelong or Queenscliff and about 20nm from Sorrento/Blairgowrie or Martha’s Cove, which makes it just about perfect as a day sail destination from anywhere in the bay. You can make it there and back if you make an early start or just “drop in” if you are cruising the bay for a few days.

Portarlington’s wharf and jetty remains in essence a working port for the local fishing industry. All that may change if the plans for a massive new marina and associated facilities go ahead, but for now — and probably for the next several years at least — it retains a work-a-day feel.

Notwithstanding that, visiting cruising yachts are well catered for with a number of pens generally available for day or overnight stays (at no charge). However, it is advisable to have your own mooring lines ready because many of the pens seen on a recent visit did not sport any such. If you are there for a short stay you might want simply to tie up alongside the jetty: in which case a barging board would be useful because the pylons are unprotected.

Approach

The approach is from the north and around the east side of the sea wall. Once inside the shelter is good in most directions. A strong west or nor’westerly can bring waves in under the jetty and is the least preferred wind direction, according to the local Parks Victoria people, but Peter Nyga also reported uncomfortable swells with strong east or nor’east winds (CH, September 2010). It may depend on where you are camped; tucked in close to the sea-wall looked to be the preferred spot for best protection.

The wharf area was recently dredged to 2.8m and there is a very noticeable change in the colour of the water where is becomes shallow, a clear line where mud turns to sand.

The town lies beyond the port and stretches up and along the slopes that look out over the bay. This is one of the great attractions of Portarlington as a place to live; one of the very few places in Port Phillip with north-facing bay views. As you would expect in a township of 3000 people the array of services and supplies is reasonable, food and alcohol, of course, EFTPOS services but no fuel either on the jetty or in the town. The nearest is Drysdale, a 10km car trip away.

Great seafood

For the visitor the real attraction is the local fare because Portarlington has great fresh seafood and excellent local wines. You can buy your fish and cook it on board or try one of the local haunts. The pub on the hill (Grand Hotel) has a good menu but the best choice is probably the rather unassuming little Spanish restaurant right on the beach.

This little gem, the Port Pier Café, serves the local mussels done four different ways. You can’t really beat this local specialty but for those not so partial to the shellfish there is locally caught fish of the day, typically flathead, whiting or snapper. They also brew their own bottled beer. We decided against the eight-percent alcohol job (as mine host John says, “A great dessert beer!”) but found the five percent ale very acceptable. A choice of local whites and softer reds complements the cuisine.

If you are looking for things to do, there is a farmers’ market on every Friday and a more general market on the last Sunday of each month, both of which offer lots of local produce. The town also boasts of hosting Victoria’s biggest mussel festival around the middle of January. (A quick search suggests it might in fact be the state’s only mussel festival, but let us not let the facts stand in the way of a good local promo!)

Summer best

Summer is undoubtedly be the best time of year to visit, but also, of course, the busiest. There is a pretty little beach inside the sea wall and jetty that appears to be reasonably sheltered for young swimmers, but it is not patrolled. In summer too everything is open. The aforementioned beach café for example opens seven days in summer but only Wednesday to Sunday the rest of the year.

I think it is a great place to visit any time of the year and personally I prefer it when it is not so crowded. It is a great day-sail from my home port at Williamstown, and a pleasant stopover. Like all of Port Phillip it is tidal but, unlike other marinas and anchorages closer to the mouth of the bay, it is not strenuously so. Navigation in and out is also quite straightforward.

You will have passed the mussel farm on the way in — east-west rectangle marked by six prominent special marks lying a little over a mile to the east of Portarlington. If you are coming or going to the west of the port be careful of the shallows off Point Richards. The area is marked but the shoal reaches out quite some way and it is no place for short cuts.

Cruising in Port Phillip is definitely under-rated, but that should change as more places become available and the places that already offer something, such as the delightfully friendly port that is Portarlington, are better known.