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Campers, hikers and day-trippers, we come bearing good news! After five years of being closed off to the public, the Sealers Cove Boardwalk has finally reopened at Wilsons Promontory National Park.
The popular Wilsons Prom walking trail was sealed off in 2021 after being badly damaged by multiple storms and flooding, becoming unsafe for walkers. The 1.8km boardwalk meant visitors could bypass an otherwise impassable swamp, connecting them directly to Sealers Cove beach – one of Victoria’s most famous remote wilderness beaches. Without the boardwalk, hikers faced a huge, far more difficult 26km one-way detour if they wanted to access the beach. Yikes.
It doesn’t just serve as a shortcut to access Sealers Cove Beach. The boardwalk helps protect the park’s wetlands by keeping visitors above the fragile tea-tree and paperback swamp habitat, rather than trekking through it.
The original timber boardwalk held up for over 40 years. Parks Victoria reported that replacing the boardwalk was no easy feat. It involved a crew being onsite seven days a week, rain, hail or shine – with no vehicle access.
Now, the boardwalk has been rebuilt using fibre-reinforced plastic (FRP) and steel footings, making it weather and flood-resistant and far more suited to Wilsons Prom’s climate.
The walk from Tidal River to Sealers Cove reopened in September, and demand for the Sealers Cove campground is anticipated to be high as a result of the reopening. So if you have summer plans to camp at Wilsons Prom, we suggest you book in advance on the Parks Victoria website.
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