Where Red Bluff Meets the Long Coast at Lake Tyers

Overview

Lakes Entrance – Lake Tyers Coastal Reserve protects a short but striking stretch of East Gippsland coast near the township of Lake Tyers, east of Melbourne. It sits beside the broader Lake Tyers landscape, where forest, lake and ocean come together, and the reserve’s character is shaped by open surf beaches, coastal cliffs and views across the sea.

This is a place with a raw coastal feel rather than a heavily developed one. The reserve is best known for its cliff-top outlooks and beach scenery, especially around Red Bluff, where the land drops sharply to the shore and the coastline feels wide, exposed and unmistakably southern.

Highlights

The standout feature here is the meeting of steep coastal bluffs with the surf beach below. Around Red Bluff, the cliff-top edge gives broad views along the sand and out across the water, with the changing light and weather making a big difference to how the coast looks from one day to the next.

The reserve also shares in the larger coastal setting of the Lake Tyers area, where Ninety Mile Beach, the lake system and nearby forested country create a landscape that feels much bigger than the reserve’s boundaries alone.

Best Time to Visit

Spring and autumn are often the most comfortable times to spend time here, when the coast is usually clearer and milder for walking and taking in the headland and beach views. Summer suits people who want the bright light, beach atmosphere and strong blue colour of the water, while winter brings a moodier coastline, rougher seas and a more windswept feel.

Plants and Animals

The surrounding Lake Tyers landscape supports a mix of coastal scenery, tall eucalypt forest, fringing wetlands and patches of warm temperate rainforest. That variety helps explain why this part of East Gippsland is so rich in wildlife.

In the broader reserve and adjoining park country, you may come across birdlife and bush animals such as White-bellied Sea Eagles, Glossy Black Cockatoos, lyrebirds, wombats, echidnas, emus, wallabies, Powerful Owls and Wedge-tailed Eagles. Along the coast itself, the appeal is often in that contrast between exposed beach and more sheltered vegetation just inland.

Culture and Heritage

This coast adjoins Lake Tyers State Park, which is on Krauatungalung Country and forms part of an area with deep significance for Gunaikurnai people. Bung Yarnda, or Lake Tyers, was an important meeting place for Gunaikurnai groups, valued for food and materials, and the wider area contains many recorded cultural sites including scar trees, artefact scatters, birthing places and burial sites.

The Lake Tyers area also carries a more recent and difficult history, as a place where many Aboriginal people lived after being forcibly removed from their homelands by European settlers.