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the beautiful bellarine
Just 90 minutes from Melbourne’s CBD, the Bellarine Peninsula has its own special charm.
The Bellarine Peninsula forms the right arm of Port Phillip Bay, hugging calm swimming beaches on one side and tremulous coastal surf beaches on the other.
The region is sometimes overlooked by travellers, who often make a beeline from Melbourne through Torquay and west along the Great Ocean Road with its famous Twelve Apostles and amazing coastal scenery. However, the Bellarine has many charms and is a perfect option for those who want to squeeze in the coast road, surf beaches, a few rounds of golf and some amazing dining.
Great food and wine, charming guesthouses, restaurants and shopping strips in the small village of Queenscliff make it a lovely place to stop and stroll. A car ferry regularly makes the 40-minute trip between Queenscliff and Sorrento on the Mornington Peninsula and a round trip covering the two peninsulas is achievable in a day.
Head east along the Peninsula and you have the choice of two courses at Thirteenth Beach Golf Links. The links-style Creek Course was designed by Tony Cashmore in conjunction with Nick Faldo, his first Australian design project. A relatively new layout, The Beach consistently ranks in the top 10 Australian public courses, again bringing players almost down to the beach and the thundering Bass Strait.
Barwon Heads is another true links course, with open fairways that make play difficult in the changing winds. The course pro says it never plays the same twice in a week. Sand craters and exposed limestone moonscapes form natural hazards, with the 13th green nicknamed ‘the postage stamp’ for its small size and severe drop off into the sea.
At Curlewis, the links-style layout has naturally undulating couch fairways and large contoured greens, with great views from high points across Port Phillip Bay toward the You Yang mountain range and Melbourne. Portarlington’s charming tree-lined course is one of the Bellarine’s oldest, celebrating its centenary in 2009.
The course at Point Lonsdale runs next to the heads of Port Phillip Bay, with views across the water to Portsea on the Mornington Peninsula. Native birdlife fills the marshes of Lake Victoria which frames the front nine. A tricky course with many dogleg holes and relatively small greens, even the best find putting here a real challenge.
The unique course at Queenscliff is set on Swan Island and backs onto a restricted military area. Reached by a purpose-built causeway from the mainland, you must pass through a military checkpoint before teeing off. It’s one of the most picturesque links-style courses in the region and the Friday nine-hole sunset golf tournament is popular during the summer, with participants invited back to one of Queenscliff’s restaurants or bars for after dark post-mortems.
Few can, or should, resist at least a day trip from Torquay to Allansford just east of Warrnambool. The giant rock stacks known as the 12 Apostles are particularly impressive just on dusk.
The Bellarine region has a small and well regarded wine industry, but food is becoming a major drawcard. Produce from the area, such as Portarlington’s amazing mussels fresh from the trawlers on the pier, smokehouse meats from the Portarlington Butcher and the delicious Drysdale goat cheeses are the stars here.
The newly opened Loam restaurant in Drysdale won a host of awards in the 2011 The Age Good Food Guide, including dish of the year for its suckling pig, and two of the coveted chefs hats. Scotchmans Hill and Bellarine Estate vineyards offer a great taste of the region’s cool climate chardonnays and pinot noir.
Off the course, the Bellarine Peninsula is a fine starting point for explorers on the Great Ocean Road, which takes in the spectacular scenery along the southern coastline of Victoria.
A 90-minute drive from Melbourne brings you to Torquay and The Sands, a layout that was 2002 Australian Open champion Stuart Appleby’s first foray into golf course architecture. The 18-hole links course winds along the coast behind the sand dunes that shield golfers from the crashing surf at Zeally Bay. Sand bunkering blends seamlessly into the seaside backdrop with some holes on the back nine taking players close to the foreshore and crashing surf.
By Louise Johnson
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