Wilsons Promontory - Victoria - Tidal River

An absolute magnificent part of Australia!  We stayed at Tidal River and basically had the place to ourselves bar about 3 or 4 other campers and vans in a ghost town park.  The lady at reception explained that they have a ballot system for the allocation of camps during the holiday period as there are over 2000 bookings years in advance that the have to try and sort out!  There is a police station and large store much like the Gympie Muster is in Queensland where a whole town pops up out of nothing!  Easy to see why as the scenery is magnificent and the creek itself a beautiful spot for swimming on a warm sunny day (just not sure if it gets warm this far south or not?).  

The following are some photo's of the River, Beach and surrounding hills of Tidal River.

Just wishing it was 36 degress and sunny.....what a swimming hole!

The girls testing the temperature....yep, bit chilly for swimmin!

Was looking for flathead marks but none to be seen?  They'd be here somewhere surely?

Same same....beautiful spot!

One of the lookouts over Tidal River. To the left of shot is the river and camping grounds.  The hill in the background is Mount Oberon which the Commando's had to climb as their first test of fitness if they wished to continue selection training.  More on that a later in this post.....

In the spirit of 'where's wally' can you spot the swamp wallaby in the photograph.  There is one so see how long it takes you!?

Footbridge over the river heading back to camp after walking to the lookout over Tidal River.

This was a pleasant surprise at Tidal River and unknown to me!

The plaque on the memorial in the background reads as follows:

This cairn was erected to commemorate the birthplace of the Commando in Australia and in memory of all Commandos who made the supreme sacrifice in World War II.

During 1941 and 1042 the 1st to 8th Independent Companies, the colour patches of which appear hereon and two New Zealand Units, were formed and trained in the Darby and Tidal River areas. Subsequently "Z" and "M" Special Units, 9th, 10th, 11th and 12th Commando Squadrons and Commando Regiments were formed. Commando Training was continued thereafter at Canungra, Fraser Island and elsewhere in northern Queensland and Garden Island, Western Australia.

Section 29 of the National Parks Act requires that the cairn at Tidal River commemorating wartime commando training be maintained. The Army buildings at Tidal River became a holiday village after the war. The road into the area was finally sealed in 1970/71.

Lest we forget!!!  What a spot to celebrate Dawn Service I can only imagine that it would be a wonderful service?  Just have to watch out for the Commando Wombats........

This big fella returned time and again through the night scratching around under our van and we would bump the wheels or stabiliser legs and the van would shake.....funny buggers they are!

Trying to get a photo with a wombat.....they really don't like staying still for long and this is about as good as I could get...we saw heaps of them in camp but trying to take a photo was near impossible!?

I would rate Tidal River as one of the nicest spots you could take the family camping!  It had sustained a heap of flood damage in 2011 and still recovering.   We are back to Taralgon again and preparing for Lucy and James' birthday parties at the Chilvers residence!! 

Love to all!! xx