Wilsons Prom closures 2026

What is closed at Wilsons Prom right now?

Big Drift, the Stockyard car park and Stockyard Campground are closed, and a deer control program shuts a few northern areas overnight from 9 to 14 November 2026. Everything around Tidal River is open.

Parks Victoria lists all of this on its Wilsons Promontory park page and repeats it on each site page. The pattern is simple: the closures sit in the north of the park, near the entrance and the Yanakie Isthmus. The places most visitors come for, the south end with Tidal River, Norman Beach, Squeaky Beach, Mount Oberon and the boat departures, are untouched.

The table below covers each item, where it is and what it means if you have a tour booked.

How long will the Wilsons Prom entrance road works delay you?

Plan on a short stop at the gate. Parks Victoria runs stop/go traffic on the entrance road from 12 October to 20 November 2026, with reduced speeds and possible delays, and says dates may shift with the weather.

The works come in two parts. The exit road was done first, from 31 August to 9 October. The entrance side started on 12 October and is due to finish on 20 November, before the summer crowds arrive. Expect traffic controllers, temporary lights and a slower run past Yanakie.

From the entrance it is still 30 km to Tidal River, and there is no fuel or electric vehicle charging at Tidal River. Fill up at Yanakie, Fish Creek or Foster. Driving yourself to a cruise? Give the gate an extra 15 minutes on top of the 30 minutes the operator already asks you to arrive early. On a day tour from Melbourne the driver deals with all of it, and the park fees are included.

What are the Wilsons Prom deer control closures in November 2026?

From 9 to 14 November 2026, between 5pm and 8am each day, there is no access to Stockyard Campground, Big Drift, Yanakie Cemetery, the Shallow Inlet Walk via Hourigan Camp Lane, or Cotters Lake and Cotters Beach.

Parks Victoria adds that other areas and some management-only tracks may close at short notice overnight. It is part of a wider invasive species program running from 1 July 2025 to 30 June 2027 against deer, rabbits, foxes and feral cats.

For visitors on a day trip, it changes nothing. Tours reach the park mid-morning and leave before dark, and all of the closed spots sit in the north. If you are camping at Tidal River this week, the only loss is an evening walk to Cotters Beach.

The control work links to the bigger project. The Prom Sanctuary plan turns the park into a 50,000-hectare refuge for native plants and animals, and in August 2026 Parks Victoria said construction had started on a 10 km exclusion fence across the Yanakie Isthmus, between Shallow Inlet and Corner Inlet. It is expected to finish in late 2026. Wombats get their own heavy gates on their main routes; foxes and cats do not get through.

Why are Big Drift and the Stockyard car park closed?

Parks Victoria has closed the Big Drift walk and the Big Drift and Stockyard car park during critical infrastructure works for the Prom Sanctuary. It gives no reopening date, only that they reopen when the works are done.

Big Drift is the field of high sand dunes in the north of the park, reached from the Stockyard car park. Stockyard Campground and its toilet block are closed until further notice too.

Two of the tours we cover list a Big Drift stop: the day trip from Federation Square and the private day tour. That stop cannot happen while the closure lasts, so expect the guide to spend the time elsewhere in the park; the rest of each day (Mount Oberon, Squeaky Beach, Tidal River) is open. If dunes are the reason you picked one of them, ask before you go.

The wilderness day tour is not affected. Its stops are scenic lookouts, a self-guided hike up Mount Oberon, Mount Bishop or through Lilly Pilly Gully, Squeaky Beach and a wildlife run on the way out.

Every stop on this day is open this month: lookouts, a hike of your choice, Squeaky Beach and wombats or emus on the way out.

★ 4.8 · 12 hours · from $102

Explore the wilderness day tour → Tour details

Is the Sealers Cove walk open again?

Check before you go. Parks Victoria's day walks page still says the Sealers Cove walk is closed due to storm damage, while its boardwalk project page, updated in September 2026, says the rebuilt boardwalk is now open to the public.

Storms and floods in 2021 wrecked the old timber boardwalk, which was over 40 years old, across the swamp behind Sealers Cove. Work on the new one started in December 2025, and the project page reports construction finished in spring 2026. The replacement runs about 1,850 m on fibre-reinforced plastic and steel footings, built to handle flooding. Time Out reported that without it, the detour to the cove was a 26 km one-way hike. With two Parks Victoria pages saying different things, look at the park page for current conditions before you walk.

The walk itself is long: 9.5 km and about 3 hours one way from the Telegraph Saddle car park, graded challenging, with the climb back up making the return slower. Beach camping is not allowed; to stay the night you need a booked campsite at Sealers Cove campground. From the Melbourne Cup weekend to Easter, Telegraph Saddle is closed to cars on weekends and in peak summer, and a free shuttle runs up from Tidal River. More on the walk in our best walks guide.

Does Wilsons Prom close on fire danger days?

Yes. Parks Victoria says the park closes on days of declared Catastrophic Fire Danger for the West and South Gippsland Total Fire Ban District. On Extreme days it asks you to reconsider your plans.

On a Catastrophic day, Parks Victoria closes parks across the weather district for public safety. If you are already inside, it advises leaving the night before or early in the morning, if it is safe. When parks closed on 9 January 2026, camping bookings for that day were cancelled and refunded. Check the rating on the CFA website or call the VicEmergency Hotline on 1800 226 226.

Fires are banned at the Prom all year anyway, including solid fuel heat beads for barbecues. For tours, the free cancellation on GetYourGuide (up to 24 hours before) is your friend in summer: look at the forecast rating a few days out and move the date if it climbs. Planning a summer trip? Our Tidal River summer 2026-27 post covers bookings, the shuttle and car parks.

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