Qualla: Phillip Island

Phillip Island: Introduction

Mon, 22 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Gambitek, CC BY-SA 4.0. Every evening, just as the light goes out of the sky, the smallest penguins in the world come home. They surface in the shallows off the Summerland beach in rafts, wait until the safety of near-darkness, and then waddle up the sand in their hundreds, crossing the dunes to burrows they have used for years. People come from all over the planet to sit in silence and watch them. This is the Penguin Parade, and the colony behind it — around 40,000 little penguins — is the largest in the world. It is the strange, soft heart of an island that also happens to host one of the fastest motorcycle races on Earth.

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Image: Gambitek | CC BY-SA 4.0

Phillip Island: The Parade at Dusk

Mon, 22 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Ikira14, CC BY-SA 4.0. Little penguins stand barely 33 centimetres tall, and they spend their days at sea, hunting fish kilometres offshore. They come ashore only under cover of darkness, when fewer predators can see them. The nightly procession at Summerland has been a managed attraction since the 192...

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Image: Ikira14 | CC BY-SA 4.0

Phillip Island: A Coast Full of Wildlife

Mon, 22 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Unwicked, CC BY-SA 3.0. The penguins are only the beginning. At the island's western tip, Seal Rocks holds one of Australia's largest colonies of Australian fur seals — many thousands of them hauled out on the bare rock, visible from the boardwalks at the Nobbies. From May to September, humpback and sou...

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Image: Unwicked | CC BY-SA 3.0

Phillip Island: The Island That Roars

Mon, 22 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Chensiyuan, CC BY-SA 4.0. Then there is the other Phillip Island. Australian motor racing was practically born here: the very first Australian Grand Prix ran in 1928 on a temporary circuit laid out along the island's public roads. A permanent track, the Phillip Island Grand Prix Circuit, opened in 1956, a...

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Image: Chensiyuan | CC BY-SA 4.0

Phillip Island: Bridges, Beaches and Hollywood

Mon, 22 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Frankzed from Melbourne, Australia, CC BY 2.0. A 640-metre bridge links the mainland town of San Remo to Newhaven on the island; the first crossing opened in 1940 with a full public holiday declared to celebrate. Beside it, Churchill Island holds the site of Victoria's first European garden, planted in 1801, now a working her...

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Image: Frankzed from Melbourne, Australia | CC BY 2.0