New years at Pettmans beach campground

Marton Bodonyi

5 Jan 2019 · Updated 27 Oct 2020

A beautiful beach if you're not into crowds

As part of our annual year-end trip in 2018 (you can read how we kicked it off here), Mel and I did something we rarely ever do, we camped at a beach! Usually if we have to choose between a forest or a beach we'll choose a forest every time - but we decided to mix it up this year and see what the fuss is all about.

A stopover at Lakes Entrance

We stopped over at Lakes Entrance to check out the town and pick up some supplies. Boy was it busy. The town really gets going at this time of year and if you're camping with a family, there's heaps of stuff to keep kids and adults entertained.

As much as we love massive tributes to Finding Nemo, we thought it'd be best to find somewhere we could camp that was a little less happening and drove the 45-minute n-shaped route to Pettmans Beach, just west of Lakes Entrance.

I get the feeling this would be faster by boat.

Arriving at the beach

We arrived at Pettmans Beach around 4:30pm to an almost full-campground under some pretty moody looking clouds. We did a rapid setup at a small campsite with a fire-pit right next to the incoming road.

Pro tip; at Pettmans all the campsites are lined up against an unsealed road and it can get pretty busy, so set-up for safety. We used our car as a bit of a shield to feel a bit more protected from the road. The last thing we want is to wake up with someones car rolling over our tent. We also set up a tarp to protect our gear from the rain and shield our campsite from the wind a little.

Protected from the elements

We went to sleep early and the next morning woke up to a busy but quiet campground. The best and worst part of Pettmans is it's protected from the beach by some massive sand dunes. That means there's not much wind but also there's no view of the water from the campsite itself. The walk up to the beach is less than 5 minutes though and once you're there it's pretty special.

Even at this time of year we only had to share the beach with a few people fishing and a couple of families.

It's actually kind of nice having a few people around to share New Years with.

When we got back to our campsite we found some cute Fairy-Wrens hanging about. Mel loves birds and we didn't think we'd get to see many at the beach so this was a definite bonus.

Hope you find what you're looking for little one.

We also saw this monster hanging around outside (thankfully) our tent in the afternoon...

New years eve

It was New Years so obviously champagne by the campfire was in order (although we don't usually need an excuse to make that happen).

The firepits are pretty standard but those steel walls provided a welcome wind break so we didn't have to make our fire too huge to start cooking. We used a Wolf And Grizzly M1 (thanks Mike!) and had the kangaroo steaks done in a few minutes.

We crashed out around 10pm and set our alarm to wake us up just before midnight. 11:50pm came and we jumped out of bed (easier said than done) and walked up to the beach. From there we could see the Lakes Entrance fireworks in the distance and we shared some beers with our fellow campers.

All in all I'd say Pettman's Beach is a really accessible and fun place to camp near the hustle and bustle of Lakes Entrance. It's a little busy and loud though so bring earplugs if you're planning on getting a good night sleep. And come early, it fills up fast.