A long-closed walking track in a national park in southern Victoria has reopened to the public. Storms wrecked the route, and the raised walkway that carried hikers across a wetland had to be rebuilt from scratch.
The site has no road access, so the crews who did the work lived on site in a temporary camp. The replacement is made from a different material and sits higher than the structure it replaced.
Image: Sealers Cove, Wilsons Promontory National Park, by Dhx1 via Wikimedia Commons, CC0 1.0.
A track closed by storms
The Sealers Cove walking track at Wilsons Promontory reopened on 18 September 2026, ending a closure that ran for close to five years. The park occupies the southernmost point of mainland Australia and is known as Yiruk Wamoon in the local Aboriginal language.
The boardwalk that carries the track is a raised walkway laid over ground too wet to walk on. Parks Victoria says the boardwalk takes the track from Tidal River to the cove across an otherwise impassable swamp. The structure had been in place since the late 1970s. A major flood damaged it in 2011, and in 2021 three successive storms hit the park and left it needing a complete rebuild.
Parks Victoria says the Sealers Cove track runs for 11 kilometres. With the boardwalk out of action, walkers faced a 26 kilometre detour by way of Refuge Cove to reach the beach.
Removing the old structure and planning the new one
The damaged boardwalk had to come out before anything could be built in its place. A dedicated crew removed it, then worked through planning and approvals, a step that matters in a park with recognised cultural and environmental values.
Stephen Erickson, a director and project manager at Envirotechniques, led the engineers and builders. The crew worked alongside traditional owners, Parks Victoria scientists and rangers to pull out the damaged sections and assess the ground.
Getting to the site took planning of its own. It sits 9.5 kilometres from Telegraph Saddle along the walking track, and it can also be reached by boat, typically out of Port Welshpool, or by helicopter. Up to nine people at a time worked a rotating roster, staying as long as 10 days straight at a camp in the bush. The camp had a mess tent, a dining and kitchen area, machinery and tool storage, and hot showers.
Mr Erickson said the crew packed everything they could think of, including the kitchen sink, because decent facilities mattered on a remote job. He recalled waking to whales in the cove and a family of kookaburras calling at dawn, with waves crashing through the night.
Why the new boardwalk is different
The new boardwalk is built from fibre-reinforced plastic, a composite that mixes plastic with strong fibres so it lasts longer and needs less maintenance. It sits about 30 centimetres higher than the structure it replaced, a change made with rising sea levels in mind.
The rebuild contract went to Envirotechniques, a firm that has built trails, boardwalks and bridges across Victoria for more than 30 years.
Parks Victoria district manager Andy Davies said a full rebuild was the best option to restore the boardwalk and give it a long life. He said the same fibre-reinforced plastic has already been used for boardwalks at Lilly Pilly Gully and Waterloo Bay, where it has stood up to the park's wild weather.
Brett Mitchell, the park's area chief ranger, described the two kilometres of boardwalk as basically sitting in a swamp. He called the reopening a magnificent achievement, and said he expects a huge influx of visitors and hikers now that the southern circuit is fully open.
A wider upgrade at the Prom
The boardwalk rebuild sits alongside a $23 million investment in the Wilsons Promontory Revitalisation Project. That program is funding a predator-proof fence across the Yanakie Isthmus on the South Gippsland coast, an upgrade at the Tidal River visitor precinct, new accommodation and trail improvements. The fence is intended to create the state's largest conservation sanctuary.
Tidal River is the main visitor base in the park, where the campground, ranger station and main services are found. Walkers heading to Sealers Cove usually start from the Telegraph Saddle car park and follow the track south.
Wilsons Promontory is one of Parks Victoria's most popular parks, drawing about 600,000 visitors a year. Rangers expect the reopened track to pull more hikers to the southern end of the park, particularly over the warmer months.
What the reopening means for visitors
The full southern circuit is back in service for the first time since the storms. The track opened just before what rangers expect to be a busy season at the park.
Walkers should plan for a long day on foot. There is no vehicle access to the cove, the track crosses exposed ground, and conditions at the southern end of the state can change quickly. Carrying water, packing sun protection and checking park alerts before setting out are basic precautions.
Parks Victoria publishes track closures, fire warnings and camping rules, and those can shift with the weather. Anyone heading out should check the current advice rather than relying on a plan made weeks earlier.
Getting to the cove
Sealers Cove sits on the park's southern coastline, and the usual walking route starts at the Telegraph Saddle car park. From there the track runs south toward the cove, and the boardwalk now carries walkers across the swampy ground that blocked the way during the closure.
There is no vehicle access at the cove. Walkers heading further south can continue to Refuge Cove and on to Waterloo Bay, where the boardwalk is made from the same composite. Campsites in the park are booked through Parks Victoria.
Rangers say visitation at the park has been climbing every year, and the reopened circuit gives day walkers and overnight hikers a complete southern loop again.
Planning a Gippsland trip
The park sits on the coast between Foster and Yanakie, within reach of towns across Gippsland. Anyone planning a walking break can pair the trip with other walking tracks around the state that have also been repaired after heavy rain.
Campsites and accommodation in nearby towns fill well ahead of the summer holidays. Booking early and travelling midweek makes a stay easier to arrange.
For more on the region, start with the Victoria local guide.
Works Cited
Stuchbery, Madeleine. "Sealers Cove track at Wilsons Promontory reopens after five years." ABC News, 18 Sept. 2026, https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-09-18/sealers-cove-reopened-wilsons-promontory-reopened-five-years/106901834.
Parks Victoria. "Rebuild on way for popular Prom hike." Parks Victoria, 6 Sept. 2023, https://www.parks.vic.gov.au/news/2023/09/06/03/00/sealers-cove-boardwalk-rebuild.