About Phantom Falls
Phantom Falls was the last of the waterfalls in Victoria that we visited in the Great Ocean Road vicinity.
Indeed, the forests of the Otways and the Angahook-Lorne region happened to be an area so full of waterfalls that visiting this one was almost an afterthought.
But as you can see from the photo above, this 15m falls on the St George River was attractive and worth the effort to reach.
Each time we’ve made a visit (once in November 2006 and another in November 2017), the falls had healthy flow.
That said, I’ve seen other photos in the literature showing the falls with even more volume and width.
Just the fact that Phantom Falls was flowing on that first visit when southeastern Australia was caught in a nearly decade-long drought certainly made me think of this falls as a pretty reliable one.
Hiking to Phantom Falls from the Allenvale Car Park
It seemed like there was more than one way to hike to this waterfall, but Julie and I took an out-and-back hike from the Allenvale Road access (see directions below).
This took us about 90 minutes to cover the 3.6km round trip distance.
The mostly uphill track pretty much meandered alongside the St George River, including going through some private property, which made this somewhat of an unusual hike.
From the Allenvale Car Park, we crossed the unsealed Allenvale Rd and onto the signed track, which skirted the St George River before entering a grassy area belonging to a private landowner.
I noticed that signage and arrows were strategically placed to minimize the disturbance to the gracious landowner enabling this route to occur in the first place.
Once we were past the property or farm, the path then skirted a fenced area sandwiched between the boundaries of the private property and the well-vegetated banks of the St George River.
The track would persist like this for the next 300m or so before the track started to climb in earnest.
The climb seemed like it was endless as it kept going up for the next 500m or so.
The steepest part of the climb was near the apex, and it was steep enough to make me feel like each step was burning my calves.
Once we got past this relentless climb, we were well above the gorge carved out by the St George River.
By then, the track had flattened out and meandered alongside the southern rim of the gorge with the river rushing audibly below.
Eventually, after 1.6km from the start, we reached a pair of signposted trail junctions leading to other trails and trailheads.
Sticking to the Phantom Falls route, shortly thereafter, we reached a signposted spur a short distance before the main track was about to cross over a ford (above the target waterfall).
Taking the spur track, it steeply descended a couple of switchbacks with railings to hold onto.
The track was also alongside some surprising water pipes before reaching the banks of the river below.
I suspect that those pipes were set up to divert some of the St George River for agricultural purposes like that private property we had passed through earlier.
That was when we were finally face-to-face with the Phantom Falls and its well-shaded plunge pool and alcoves.
While this was one of the more unsung waterfalls of the Angahook-Lorne State Park (let alone the Great Otway National Park), there were still a surprising number of people sharing the falls with us on each of our visits here.
Speculating on shorter approaches to Phantom Falls
I suspect that the presence of people could be due to the fact that there were multiple ways to hike to the falls in addition to the Allenvale Car Park approach that we took.
According to the maps, it appeared that the Erskine Falls Road approach near the Cora Lynn Car Park could be a slightly shorter approach distance-wise.
However, that would involve going across the St George River ford that we avoided at the top of Phantom Falls.
In any case, despite the misleading signage at the Allenvale trailhead suggesting the hike to the falls was either 2.5km each way or 2.5km round trip, according to my GPS logs, we went 3.6km round trip (or 1.8km in each direction).
Authorities
Phantom Falls resides in the Great Otway National Park near Lorne, Victoria. It is administered by Parks Victoria. For information or inquiries about the area as well as current conditions, visit their website.
While there are many approaches to get to the Allenvale Rd into the forests further up the hills from Lorne, we’ll start off by describing what we think would be the most straightforward route.
We’ll then get to alternative approaches later on in this section.
The easiest approach would be from the south end of the town centre of Lorne where the Great Ocean Road / Mountjoy Parade would intersect with Bay St at a roundabout opposite the car park for the Lorne Beach at Loutit Bay.
Going up the steep residential road at Bay St for 450m, we then make a right turn onto George St.
In about 200m George St then entered a roundabout, where we took the first exit to go onto Allenvale Rd.
From there, we followed the unsealed road for about 1.5km until we reached the Allenvale Car Park on our left.
The Phantom Falls Track began opposite the Allenvale Rd from the car park (the signs and track leading from the far end of the car park was for the Allenvale Mill Site Camping Area and not for the waterfall).
If you’re coming into town from the north, it might be worth taking Otway St, which leaves the Great Ocean Road at a roundabout by the Lorne Visitor Centre.
We’d then follow the Otway St for about 1km to the roundabout hooking us up with Allenvale Rd (2nd exit).
Afterwards, we’d take the unsealed road for 1.5km to the Allenvale Car Park.
Finally, there was also an alternate trail leading from the Sheoak Picnic Area to the Phantom Falls.
This route didn’t involve crossing through private property though the track was a bit longer than the one we took from the Allenvale Car Park.
In any case, the Sheoak Picnic Area was an additional 1.9km beyond the Allenvale Car Park along the bumpy Allenvale Rd.
For geographical context, Lorne was 47km (a little over an hour drive) east of Apollo Bay, 142km (under 2 hours drive) southwest of Melbourne or 68km (over an hour drive) southwest of Geelong.
Find A Place To Stay
Left to right sweep before zooming in on the falling water of Phantom Falls
Related Trip Reports
Related Top 10 Lists
No Posts Found
Related Itineraries
Trip Planning Resources
Nearby Accommodations
Featured Images and Nearby Attractions
Visitor Comments:
Got something you'd like to share or say to keep the conversation going? Feel free to leave a comment below...No users have replied to the content on this page
Visitor Reviews of this Waterfall:
If you have a waterfall story or write-up that you'd like to share, feel free to click the button below and fill out the form...No users have submitted a write-up/review of this waterfall
Nearest Waterfalls
