Erskine Falls, The Great Ocean Road, Victoria, Australia - Waterfalls and Beaches

Erskine Falls and Fairhaven Beach

Erskine Falls is in the Great Otway National Park just outside of Lorne in Victoria. The falls are on a the Erskine River. Fairhaven Beach is on the Great Ocean Road near Aireys Inlet.

Normally we’d talk about a bush walk to a waterfall being challenging, or a long walk. Not with Erskine Falls. It is less than 2 minute’s walk to the first observation point from the car park. Then it is only another 5 minutes down to the second observation point at the lower falls. Hardly challenging. Although there are a couple of hundred steps back up.

The waterfall is gorgeous. It has a high 30 metre drop from the top the falls to the pool below. It is one of the more spectacular waterfalls in the Great Otway National Park. It is also the most accessible for day trippers. Unfortunately the worst thing about Erskine Falls is its accessibility. It attracts crowds of people. Generally if people have to put a bit of effort to get to a waterfall, say more than a 20 minute walk, it will be more secluded and it won’t be crowded. Erskine being so accessible attracts crowds that, we can say, are less respectful of the environment. I’ve never seen so much rubbish strewn around the car park and in the bush fringing the car park. There aren’t any toilets there but that doesn’t seem to stop people going. Grots. For the record there are toilets on the road leading to Erskine Falls about two kilometres away at the Blanket Leaf Picnic Area.

The falls are set amongst rocks, beautiful ferns and tall eucalyptus. It is quite a lush rainforest. It is only a couple of hundred steps down from the upper observation deck into the cool gully at the base of the falls. It is a perfect spot for an Instagram photo. Although, like I mentioned, during busy periods there will be dozens of people clambering over rocks at the base of the falls so it might be tricky to get the perfect shot without other people in it.

Even though it was the middle of Summer we had another cool day. The Summer of 2019 was a cool one. It had rained recently so the water was cascading over the falls. During drier times it can slow to a trickle.

Erskine Falls is an easy trip for a family day trip from Melbourne. There is a longer walk to get to the falls if you want to avoid the crowds. Dog's aren't allowed so we had to leave Cassie home but we did see a couple of dogs there.

We saw a koala high up in a tree next to the road to Erskine Falls just outside of Lorne. I don’t know how Michelle spotted it from a moving car but it was very cool to see a koala in the wild.

Erskine Falls is about 2 hours from Melbourne in the Great Otway National Park and just few minutes from Lorne. Fairhaven Beach is on the Great Ocean Road just outside of Aireys Inlet. You can see the Split Point Lighthouse from the beach. Fairhaven Beach is a big wide beach with plenty of room to move. Being a couple of hours from Melbourne and with so many other beaches in the area it is never crowded.

There's loads of other places to see in the area too, including the Great Ocean Road, a bunch of other waterfalls, beaches and the beautiful Otway Ranges.

Check out Erskine Falls on Visit Victoria

Check out our Youtube video below:

Many of the pictures on this page are by Michelle. Essentially the good ones. Michelle retains full copyright and they can not be reproduced without permission. For licensing and using the photos contact Michelle at Michelle Newnan Photography