Last updated: September 01, 2015


Australian Holidays

Blair McDonough's Phillip Island

Phillip Island

The penguin parade at dusk attracts thousands of visitors who watch from the walkways on Phillip Island. Picture: Phillip Island Nature Parks. Source: Supplied


Phillip Island is a great fishing spot, with breathtaking views. Picture: Supplied. Source: Supplied

IT'S an experience that children love, but even big kids such as Blair McDonough can appreciate the delights of the nightly penguin parade at Phillip Island in Victoria.

It's a couple of hours' drive south of their Melbourne home and they head down there most weekends.

McDonough often takes his nieces and nephews to see the penguin parade.

Phillip Island is home to one of the largest little penguin colonies in the world and every sunset wild little penguins emerge from the sea and waddle across the beach to their sand dune burrows.

"It's very family oriented," McDonough says.

"It's awesome for the kids to get so up close and personal to them and watch them go to their nest. It's quite a spectacle. They're tiny sea birds and the ocean that they're in is full of sharks. They're pretty brave guys to be swimming out there."

McDonough says some nights a few dozen people will show up, other nights it can be a couple of hundred.

"They usually go pretty much straight in and seek cover," he says.

"It's all been environmentally checked so you don't interfere with the habitat at all.

"You can watch from a distance and the penguins don't get too frightened by the people. There's a few lights so you can get a better view."

McDonough's association with the island has led him to be named an ambassador for the Phillip Island Nature Parks Penguin Foundation.

But there are plenty of other aspects of the island McDonough enjoys.

"It's a bit of a sleepy old island it's a farming island," he says. "It's fairly safe for kids and a great fishing spot. Just recently I caught a snapper that was 50cm long. Woolamai Beach is an awesome surf beach which backs right on to the Southern Ocean. It's pretty raw down there."

When the fish aren't biting, McDonough will drift along in the boat and watch the seals that hop along every now and then.

He says there are plenty of bed-and- breakfasts, farm stays and apartment rentals in the towns, such as the main town, Cowes.

"There's a couple of great vineyards like Purple Hen Winery and Phillip Island Winery. On a Sunday night there's a lot of music and sitting outside with a cheese board."

He also loves the Italian restaurant Pino's Trattoria in Cowes and Tides of Rhyll Fish and Chippery.

"Julian down there is just a champion he has the best prawns I have had in a long time."