Mornington - Fast Facts

Mornington (including Mt Eliza, Moorooduc and Mt Martha)
Popular seaside resort destination for Melbourne daytrippers.
Mornington is situated on high ground adjacent and overlooking Port Phillip Bay, 52 km south of Melbourne's CBD via the Nepean Highway. With about 18 000 people, it is the principal settlement of the Mornington Peninsula - an uplifted block of sandstone, volcanic rocks and granite which extends around in a south-westerly arc to enclose Port Phillip Bay and separate it off from Western Port.

Although it is a popular holiday destination, Mornington is not too congested and retains something of the feel of the old fishing and boating port that it once was. Main Street runs off the Nepean Highway through the town and out to the coast at Schnapper Point which was named either after a boat which was wrecked here in the early days or after the snapper fish which is common in the local waters.

Schnapper Point has a jetty, a boat-launching ramp and a yacht club. Mornington Park is nearby. The Esplanade follows the shoreline which consists of a series of small, attractive bays and safe beaches which extend for about 20 km from Mt Martha in the south to Mt Eliza in the north. To the south of Schnapper Point are Fishermans Beach, where there is another boat-launching ramp, Fossil Beach, where 25-million-year-old fossils have been found, and Mt Martha Beach. To the north are Sunnyside Beach and Ranelagh Beach. Limestone was mined at Fossil Beach in the 1860s and used for cement. Some remnants of the limeburners' kilns remain.