Victoria > West Coast
Marriners Lookout
| Type | Coastal Hill |
| Conditions | SE |
| Height | 750' asl, 230m asl |
| Rating | PG2 / HG Supervised |
Melways Map 101, C5. Travelling down the coast from Anglesea, 2 km outside of Apollo Bay, turn right at the signpost to Marriners Lookout and follow the road up the hill. At the end, park your car in the carpark, go through the gate (closing it after you) and follow the track about 350m uphill to its end.
Landowners
Daily per pilot fee to fly
The landowner requires a $9.50, per day, per pilot, launch fee. Please do not fly without paying the daily launch fee. You are also required to sign a waiver form before flying. You must have a current SAFA membership card and be appropriately rated.
There is a carpark at the top of the Marriners Lookout road with about a dozen carparks. The landowners live on the south side of the carpark (see mud map - click for larger version).
(Notes as of April 2023): When you stand at the gate facing south there are two buildings in front of you that look like houses. The correct one to go to is the one to the west, so if you’re standing at the gate facing south it should be the house just to your right. Walk in, from the gate, as shown on the mud map, and turn right into the back the house which will look like an outdoor sitting area like a patio. You will see the back door of the house next to which there is a wooden pocket which is about the size of a regular office “in tray”.
Look for a blank waiver form and fill it in. Put the waiver form and your daily per-pilot flying fee into the wooden pocket. If there are no waiver forms, then please bring in your own piece of paper, and write on it: Your full name, SAFA number, and write “I accept the waiver conditions to fly at the Marriners Lookout site”, and sign it and date it.
As of April 2023 the daily per pilot flying fee the landowner has asked for is $9.50. But it is common for pilots to leave $10.
Please be nice to the landowners. They are friendly, and we depend on their goodwill to fly there.
In the past, if you don’t end up flying and the owners are there, you can go in and get your money back. Obviously though please be sensible, we really want to look after these landowners. Marriners is a PG2 rated site and it’s usually not too hard to tell if it’s going to be on. Maybe its better to walk up the track and check conditions first, rather than pay your fee and then have to seek a refund if it turns out not to be on?
The track to the lookout is also the track to the launch
At the western end of the carpark is the gate to the track leading to the lookout. There’s a donation tin. This is not where to put your fee. The reason the tin is there is that many years ago the old landowners made an agreement with the council to enable public access to the lookout. The old landowners donated the track. People put coins in there to help with maintaining the track. Put a coin in if you want to, but please make sure you pay your daily per-pilot flying fee to the landowner in the box at their house.
Contact
Dynasoarers , Rob van der Klooster (0408 335 559), Peter Hannah (0422 148 545), Jan Bennewitz (0423 139 923), Bruce Atkinson (0409 946 232)Responsible
DynasoarersDescription
Large grassy coastal hill range. Good views, good thermals and the option of cross country flights along the coast to the east.
Takeoff
You can use the lookout area to setup and launch. In a good breeze you can take off from the actual lookout. However there are often members of the public at the lookout, and there are some scrubby bushes (Apr 2023) along the southern edge of the lookout that you need to be careful to clear.
In most conditions it is better and safer to step carefully over the fence on the north side of the lookout and walk up the hill behind the lookout to launch. The hill has a curved face which allows a SE to SW arc of possible launching direction options depending on conditions. It is a grassy smooth ground ramp with lots of setup area.
Landing
Landing on the beach or in the paddocks below should cause no problems but beware of powerlines, fences and gullies. There are also power lines in amongst the pine trees just before the beach.
It is possible to land on top in the right conditions, on launch or right at the top of the hill, some 150' above launch.
Flight
A SE wind generally grades in strength as you go west along the coast from Port Phillip Bay, and Apollo Bay is the end of the line. The Cape Otway BOM readings can be quite different to the conditions at Marriners. On the plus side, you don't need much wind to stay up, and the site can produce beautiful thermals on the face and from the flatlands and township out front.
Hazards / Comments
Beware of powerlines, fences and gullies, and of snakes on the pathway.