Point Nepean National Park is ready to welcome its first campers, with bookings now open for a new campground within the park’s historic Quarantine Station precinct.
Positioned 20 metres from the foreshore, the new campground features pre-pitched tents on timber platforms providing a unique experience for visitors to stay at this special national park.
There are 36 tent pads available, with hot showers, toilets and basic kitchen facilities provided at the nearby Isolation Ward Hospital building. This heritage-listed building has been carefully refurbished as part of the $4.5 million campground project.
Point Nepean National Park sits within an Aboriginal cultural landscape and is a significant place for Traditional Owners of the lands, the Bunurong people. The park protects a range of native plants and animals, and has a rich military, defence, immigration and quarantine history. Combined with its heritage-listed buildings and stunning natural landscape, the park is extremely popular with locals and visitors.
The new campground will offer a more immersive experience at this special place, helping to foster conservation among visitors, while providing unique outdoor activities and supporting local businesses.
Next year will see additional tent pads and facilities created at the campground, in addition to a new project to bring to life the stories and special values of the national park.
The campground project forms a key part of the Point Nepean National Park Master Plan, and includes funding from the $106.6 million Victoria’s Great Outdoors program and the Regional Tourism Investment Fund – Stimulus Round, via the Department of Jobs Precincts and Regions.
The master plan for the park was released in 2018 with an aim to protect its unique values and ensure its complex stories as a cultural landscape are valued and expressed. The plan also delivered a major upgrade to Defence Road, providing improved visitor safety and enabling bicycle access to Fort Nepean. In 2020, new visitor facilities were added at the Quarantine Station including seating, picnic and BBQ facilities with shelters and a drinking water fountain.
Elsewhere in the park, a $6 million investment will see parts of Fort Nepean restored, allowing visitors to explore a part of Victoria’s military history.
- Campground bookings and further information is available at www.parks.vic.gov.au/discovery-tents
