Lifestyle Travel Ballarat is proud to be an officially licensed tour provider of The Aussie Camino.

The Aussie Camino is a pilgrimage route running from Portland in Victoria to Penola in South Australia, inspired by the life and journeys of Australia’s Saint Mary of the Cross MacKillop and her mentor Fr Julian Tenison Woods.

Pope Francis has declared 2021, the Year of St Joseph and this Camino Pilgrimage offers the opportunity to follow & reflect on the lives & contribution of the ‘Josephites or Brown Joeys, The Sisters of St Joseph of the Sacred Heart, founded by St Mary McKillop in Penola in 1866.

The Aussie Camino is a journey of discovery and faith developed by Luke Mills, who completed the first Camino in 2014. Grown from the idea of the famous Camino de Santiago in Spain, the 10 day, 160km Aussie Camino begins in Portland, Victoria and follows the Great South West Walk trail along the Victorian coast before crossing into South Australia and heading north from Port Macdonnell through Mt Gambier and finishing in Penola.

map, inclusions & Prices

Aussie Camino Package Includes:

All transport including return from Ballarat/Melbourne
9 nights accommodation with private facilities where available.
Camino Passport, Shell, Guidebook & final Compostela.
Daily Breakfast, some lunches and 2 Dinners.

*Other dinners paid locally as mainly pub meals with broad menus

Price from $2795 per person twin share

*Limited single rooms available - Supplement applies.

*Additional extras available at request including extra nights in Penola and direct flight from Mt Gambier to Melbourne.

dates & booking REQUESTS

Please select your prefer tour date and complete the Booking Request Form. Our team will be in touch within 48 hours to confirm your place, pending availability.

DEPARTURE DATES

AVAILABILITY

PRICE FROM

From January 2024 and beyond, we will only be operating Camino’s for private groups of 10 or more people.

We are moving to private groups only due to the difficulty in maintaining the minimum passenger numbers when accepting individual bookings for advertised dates.

There may be scope to pair individual travelers with existing privates groups or group together 10 or more individual travellers from our Expression of Interest list.

To add your details to this list, please call us on 03 5331 8277 or email info@lifestyletravel.com.au.

10 day itinerary

Day 1 - Melbourne to Portland

Our official meeting point is at 8.45am at the Mary MacKillop Centre in East Melbourne. Our private Minibus will be departing from here at 10.00am. This afternoon we will visit Bayview House and All Saints Catholic Church, where Mary MacKillop and her sister, Annie, taught at the school.

Stay 1 night in Portland

Day 2 - Cape Nelson to Cape Bridgewater - 22km walk

After a 7am breakfast we will transfer to our starting point at Cape Nelson Lighthouse. For the next 3 days, we follow the Great South West Walk along coastal tracks that run along clifftops, affording spectacular views. Some amazingly washed-up shipping containers stranded on the beach are a focal point today.

Stay 2 nights at Cape Bridgewater

Day 3 - Cape Bridgewater to Bridgewater Lakes - 16km walk

A short but be very enjoyable day. This day includes the Petrified Forest, a unique geological formation, and the juxtaposition of ancient lava flows and sandstone cliffs. Our bus will be waiting at Bridgewater Lakes to transfer us back to Cape Bridgewater for our second night.

Day 4 - Bridgewater Lakes to Nelson (incl Bus) - 23km walk

After an early breakfast we will depart at 7.30am for drop off at Lake Mombeong. The beach section through sand dunes has lots of ancient aboriginal middens laden with shells. We rendezvous at the Hard Rock Café, a rock formation which requires an exciting well synchronized dash to beat the waves to get around it! Travel from Nelson to Port MacDonnell

Stay 2 nights in Port Macdonnell

Day 5 - Piccanninnie Ponds to Port Macdonnell - 25km walk

This morning our bus will drop us at Piccanninnie Ponds. This is a limestone karst lake, very unique and used by specialist cave divers. and the start of our foray into the limestone country of SA.

Day 6 - Port Macdonnell to Mt Gambier - 28km walk

Today we move away from the coast we head north inland along beautiful back country lanes with rural views. We will stop at Mt Schank, a 100m high dormant volcano. There will be an option to climb it after lunch and experience the caldera that you can descend into. This is the quintessential example of a real volcanic cone. We will then walk past Blue Lake on the way into Mt Gambier and see this Australian Gem.

Stay 2 nights in Mt Gambier

Day 7 - Mt Gambier to Dismal Swamp - 17km walk

Enjoy a slightly later start today before walking to Dismal Swamp on quiet rural tracks through this amazing limestone country.

Day 8 - Dismal Swamp to Kalangadoo - 21km walk

Watch out for the exquisite avenue of Eucalypts that line the final part of the route into town. Kalangadoo is a silent reminder of what it once was prior to the railway line being closed. The post office and Police station are closed, but the pub remains a solitary business still open. This is also the home of Roly Parks, a character created by ABC’s Brian Dawe for his radio segment, “Letter from Kalangadoo”.

Stay 1 night in Kalangadoo

Mary MacKillop Interpretive Centre, South Australia

Day 9 - Kalangadoo to Penola - 28km walk

After breakfast, we follow the old railway line for a most of the day and is good idea to wear long pants as the railway line can be a bit overgrown in parts. Our Camino ends in Penola where St Mary and Fr Julian established the, the Sisters of St Joseph of the Sacred Heart and St Joseph’s School, the first free Catholic school. Affectionately known as the ‘Josephites’ or ‘Brown Joeys’, today the Sisters of Saint Joseph live in communities ministering throughout Australia, New Zealand, Ireland, Peru, East Timor, Scotland and Brazil.

Stay 1 night in Penola

Day 10 - Penola to Ballarat

For those so inclined, there is the option to attend 9:00am Mass at St Joseph’s and receive a Pilgrims’ blessing & meet local Parishioners. A Great way to finish our Aussie Camino! After Mass, we will tour the Mary MacKillop Interpretive Centre where Camino Passports will be stamped and our official Compostela issued, recognising the completion of your Aussie Camino. We then board our Minibus and make our way back to Melbourne stopping for lunch along the way. The drop off point will be the Mary MacKillop Centre, East Melbourne or another place of preference, by arrangement.

BUEN CAMINO !