Warrnambool sits snugly between the Merri and Hopkins rivers at the western end of the Great Ocean Road. Once a major whaling station, it is now a relaxed seaside town with a nice mix of maritime history, surf beaches, and wildlife.
The big draw is whale watching. Every year between June and October, Southern Right Whales migrate from Antarctic waters to calve at Logan's Beach, sometimes swimming within 100 metres of shore. A viewing platform on the dunes offers excellent vantage. The Flagstaff Hill Maritime Museum recounts the dangerous days of the Shipwreck Coast, when fog and reefs claimed hundreds of sailing ships.
Tower Hill State Game Reserve sits inside an extinct volcano 15 kilometres to the northwest, where koalas, emus, and kangaroos roam freely inside the crater. The Warrnambool Art Gallery, one of Victoria's oldest regional galleries, holds colonial landscapes and contemporary Australian work. And off the coast, Middle Island hosts a little penguin colony guarded by Maremma sheepdogs — a conservation story that became an Australian film.
Warrnambool has its own unsolved mystery too. In 1832 an ancient shipwreck was found off the coast, then lost again under shifting dunes in 1880. Old Portuguese maps suggest a voyage to Australia as early as 1522. If the so-called Mahogany wreck is indeed Portuguese, it would rewrite the story of European discovery of Australia.