Destinations: Gippsland Lakes

I cut power to the outboard and we drift, all eyes focussed on the water's surface with laser-like intensity. Suddenly a dark dorsal fin breaks the surface – followed by another, and another, and then several more.

Related stories:

No, it isn't the ravenous great white I'd envisaged, possibly considering our outboard as a starter followed by us as the main course, but a family of dolphins – six or seven of them, cruising lazily down the southernmost reaches of the Mitchell River where it empties into Lake King.

This close encounter with nature was just one of many my wife, my two sons and I would enjoy over three days, as we discovered this spectacular part of Victoria by boat.

For my Melbourne-based family, Victoria's Gippsland Lakes region was one of those 'must get to' destinations we'd always overlooked in favour of far-flung holiday hotspots. Now, I'm kicking myself I didn't make the effort years ago – and saved myself a fortune in fuel and airfares in the process.

We're relatively new to boating but we love camping and generally enjoying an outdoorsy lifestyle, and we jumped at the chance to explore the Gippsland Lakes when the opportunity came knocking.

With a brand-spanking-new Whittley CR 2080 cruiser at our disposal, and a Holden Trailblazer to tow it, all we had to do was collect the boat in Melbourne and make the three-hour drive east to Paynesville, a popular point to kick off many a Gippsland Lakes adventure.

With a weighbridge reading of 1500kg on the trailer, the Whittley posed no issue whatsoever for the Holden Trailblazer with its gutsy 2.8-litre Duramax turbo-diesel, despite the SUV being loaded to the gunnels.

Opting for an “obscene o'clock” launch the next morning, we stayed on Raymond Island for our first night, which is separated from Paynesville by a 200-metre-wide channel and accessed via a ferry.

The kids were perhaps a little deflated to see the island destination I'd sold to them involved a boat ride of all of two minutes, but a bit of marketing spin never hurts when it comes to family getaways and besides, the real boating was still to come.

And come it did, as we stirred into action just before daybreak. The early weekday launch from the Raymond Island boat ramp proved ideal – we had it all to ourselves, save for some of the local koalas that call the island home. They kept their snide comments about my launching skills to themselves, and we were soon on the water and ready to go.

The CR 2080 is Whittley's smallest cruiser and we'd clearly overpacked. In retrospect we could have safely halved our gear and supplies, but we found a spot for everything regardless.

With the sun peeping above the horizon, I eased on the throttle and the outboard sprang to life, the boat burbling its way past the Paynesville marina on its way to open water and mysteries beyond.

We'd been monitoring the weather forecast and we knew she was going to blow, but it's one thing to look at numbers and arrows on a phone, and another entirely to be amongst it, a 25-knot sou-wester whipping up whitecaps and the hull pounding its way through the chop.

Fortunately it's only a relatively short hop down to Steamers Landing, on the northern side of Ninety Mile Beach, at the entrance to a narrow but lengthy branch known as Bunga Arm.

Gently running the Whittley up onto the sand on the leeward side, we secured the boat and took a brief walk over the dunes to see Ninety Mile Beach in all its isolated magnificence.

This really is a stunning bit of coastline, where often the only hint of mankind's presence is a distant speck of an oil and gas rig. Today we had it all to ourselves – well, us and the howling wind!

Back on the boat, which thankfully was sporting a full seat of clears to keep the wind and spray outside, we retraced our route then swung west into Newlands Arm, which offered some respite from the blustery conditions. Here we pottered about simply admiring the multimillion-dollar palaces perched atop the cliffs and headlands.

After beating a mid-afternoon retreat to Paynesville, we moored at one of the public berths to wait out the gale.

That's one of the great things about the Gippsland Lakes – if the weather doesn’t play ball (and let's face it, southern Victoria's climatic reputation precedes it), you can visit any of several great little towns.

So that's what we did. We hopped back on the punt to Raymond Island and did its famous koala walk, spotting koalas, echidnas, kangaroos, and all sorts of birdlife. It was a top afternoon, wind be damned!

The following morning we awoke to the honks of several inquisitive black swans, keen to see our breakfast menu.

Whittley's CR 2080 was never intended to sleep four, but we had enjoyed a pleasant enough slumber, mum and the boys tucked up in the vee berth, me in a swag on the deck.

Best of all, our berth was 30 metres from the local bakery and its fortifying coffee and egg-and-bacon rolls. There were public bathroom and shower facilities nearby too, all of which conspire to make life comfortable for the travelling boatie.

The shrill shriek of the wind ripping through the rigging at the adjacent yacht club somewhat subdued, we cast off from the jetty with renewed optimism to see what nearby Lake King had to offer.

Gippsland Lakes stretches over 400 square kilometres and comprises three main lakes – Wellington, Victoria and King – that are in turn fed by several rivers. Despite being notoriously shallow, the lakes are all interconnected and highly navigable, and boaties can push up the rivers for quite some distance too.

Not thrilled at the prospect of running aground, I found my attention cycling from the navigation markers, to the water, to the boat's sounder, to my phone's marine navigation app. It's a little disconcerting to find yourself in just a metre of water when the nearest shoreline is miles away, but with care and clever technology we navigated our way safely around or between any potential dangers.

The silt jetties at the lower reaches of the Mitchell River were a real highlight. As the name suggests, silt flushing down from upstream has slowly led to the formation of banks each side of the river that extend for several kilometres out into the lake.

The banks are only a couple of metres wide at their eastern extremities but they're a haven for birdlife, with countless black swans, pelicans, gulls, and cormorants calling these narrow spits of land home. There's plenty going on beneath the surface too, as numerous anglers dotting the banks bore testament.

The best was yet to come, however, when our boat was joined by that pod of inquisitive dolphins. To see these superb creatures glide past was truly special. Our boys were blown away – we all were…

From Lake King we motored east past Metung and on to Lakes Entrance. The bar at Lakes Entrance – the only connection the enclosed lake system has with the sea – looked rather angry and I thought better of making my first crossing with the family in tow. That could wait for when a more experienced skipper was on hand for advice.

Instead, we found our way to the public berths at Lakes Entrance, handily positioned across the road from the pub.

Once on land we headed to Griffiths Sea Shell Museum, just up from the commercial fishing fleet.

Now with its giant fibreglass octopus, it looks a little dodgy in that classic 1970s Aussie tourist-trap kind of a way, but if you've got kids – or even if you don't – it's a fascinating place to while away some time.

It was started by Coralie Griffiths in 1962, just after she and Max – a local trawler man – had married. They've been adding to the collection ever since.

Coralie is one of those sweet little grannies you just wish you could put in your pocket and take home. I didn't, of course – there are laws against that – but we had a great chat about a great many topics.

The kids adored the museum, with its diverse specimens spanning not just sea shells, but a preserved goblin shark (dragged up from a depth of 1000 metres!), a 650kg black marlin, myriad gems and minerals, and more.

We loved it, and were glad to hear Coralie, now in her mid-70s, tell us her granddaughter was interested in taking over the business one day.

We enjoyed dinner at the pub that night, slept soundly, then awoke the next morning to more black swans (were they stalking us?) and the sight of a beautiful old timber yacht moored in the pen alongside.

Its three crew looked like they'd just come from a Sydney Hobart yacht race, and indeed that wasn’t far from the mark. In fact, they were taking this lovely old girl from Melbourne up to Sydney, where they were to contest a classic regatta for timber craft that had previously tackled the epic event.

Their yacht had sailed the Sydney Hobart race back in 1962, and they'd also taken a bit of a battering from the wind in recent days, having sought some respite along the way in Refuge Cove, on the eastern side of Wilsons Promontory.

After breakfast we made a beeline for the ramp at Raymond Island. A head wind was blowing at around 20 knots (again), but the little Whittley sliced its way through the chop with little concern.

This 6.2-metre craft was a faithful companion on our adventure – compact enough to be manageable but big enough to cart all our stuff and with enough protection and performance to handle the blustery conditions.

Getting the boat back on the trailer wasn't half the issue I thought it was going to be, but my jubilation was short-lived after I slipped on the boat ramp and fell backwards over the trailer drawbar. Damn you, Crocs, and your comfy but grip-less nature!

We loved our time on Gippsland Lakes, and especially just meandering from one town to the next. Those towns, the wildlife, and the sheer variety of landscape add up to one spectacular family cruising destination.

If you ever get the chance to explore this idyllic region by boat, make sure you grab the opportunity with both hands, too…

Getting there

The Gippsland Lakes, a strip of marshes, lakes and lagoons stretching for about 60 kilometres inland of Ninety Mile Beach, are between a 2.5- to 3.5-hour drive east of Melbourne. At the western end, the lakes system starts at the Port of Sale where the Latrobe River flows into Lake Wellington, while Lakes Entrance marks its easternmost end.

Paynesville is a popular jumping-off point for boats visiting the lakes system. It has launching facilities as well as hot showers, with supermarkets catering to boat-based tourists with must-haves such as blocks of ice.

Gippsland Ports has maps of the lakes system, as well as a list of launching ramps and sewage disposal points.