Queenscliff sits at the tip of the Bellarine Peninsula, beside Point Lonsdale and overlooking the Rip — the narrow, notoriously wild entrance to Port Phillip Bay. About 90 minutes from Melbourne and half an hour from Geelong, it is one of Victoria's best-preserved seaside towns: a working fishing harbour, grand Victorian-era hotels and streets that have changed remarkably little in over a century.
First settled as a pilot station at Shortland's Bluff, the town was renamed Queenscliff in 1853 by Lieutenant-Governor Charles La Trobe in honour of Queen Victoria. The Borough of Queenscliffe, taking in Queenscliff and neighbouring Point Lonsdale, was incorporated in 1863 and survives today as Victoria's smallest local government area and its only remaining borough — home to around 1,500 permanent residents, a number that swells many times over each summer. You can read more on our history of Queenscliff page.
Queenscliff's 19th-century prosperity came from two things: shipping and defence. A gun battery was first built on Shortland's Bluff in 1860, and between 1879 and 1889 it grew into Fort Queenscliff, the command centre for a chain of forts guarding Port Phillip Heads. By the 1890s these defences made Port Phillip one of the most heavily defended harbours in the Southern Hemisphere. The fort remains wonderfully intact — walls, keep, gun emplacements and cells — and guided tours run regularly.
That history is easy to explore. The Queenscliffe Historical Museum on Hesse Street and the Queenscliffe Maritime Museum on Weeroona Parade, beside the harbour, both hold rich collections covering the town's pilots, lifeboat crews, fishing families and shipwrecks.
On Shortland's Bluff stand Queenscliff's famous pair of lighthouses, built in 1862–63 as leading lights: ships entering the Rip lined one up above the other to hold the safe channel. The High Light — better known as the Black Lighthouse — stands inside the fort grounds and is one of only a handful of black lighthouses in the world, its dark bluestone left unpainted. Its partner, the White Lighthouse or Low Light, is built of the same bluestone painted white and stands closer to the shoreline, with a lookout nearby offering front-row views of ships threading the Heads.
The commercial heart of Queenscliff is Hesse Street, lined with century-old shopfronts, cafes, galleries and bookshops. Presiding over it is the Vue Grand Hotel, opened in 1881 as the Grand Hotel and by far the town's most extravagant building of its day; after a fire gutted the front section in 1927 it was rebuilt in the Spanish Mission style you see today. Around the corner on Gellibrand Street, a row of stately hotels and guest houses from the same boom era faces a wide strip of clifftop parkland and the sea.
Surrounded by water on three sides, Queenscliff has coastline in every direction: calm bay beaches, an ocean-facing surf beach, historic piers, rocky outcrops and clifftop walking paths. The whole town is compact enough to explore comfortably on foot.
Queenscliff Harbour, east of Wharf Street, is still home to a working fishing fleet alongside a modern marina, redeveloped in 2009. A boardwalk retail strip holds cafes and restaurants with views over the moorings, and the harbour's 30-metre observation tower has a viewing deck at the top with a panorama across the town, the Bay and the Heads.
From the eastern end of the harbour, Searoad Ferries runs a year-round car and passenger service across the mouth of the Bay to Sorrento on the Mornington Peninsula. The crossing takes around 40 minutes and links the two peninsulas directly, saving the long drive around through Melbourne. See our Queenscliff–Sorrento ferry guide for fares, timetables and tips.
The Bellarine Railway operates a collection of steam and diesel-hauled heritage trains from around Australia on 16 kilometres of the former Victorian Railways Queenscliff branch line, originally opened in 1879. Return passenger services run year-round between Queenscliff and Drysdale, along with the famous Blues Train dinner-and-music evenings, Day Out With Thomas weekends, Santa trains, driver experiences and charters.
Add clean beaches, a lively food scene and a calendar topped by the Queenscliff Music Festival each November, and it is easy to see why the Borough of Queenscliffe remains one of Victoria's favourite seaside escapes. Ready to come and see it? Start with our Plan Your Visit guides, check what's on, or browse places to stay.
Queenscliff.com.au is a dedicated travel website for Queenscliff, Victoria. Book accommodation, get special deals or find all necessary information to maximise your holiday experience.
