A simple and beautiful addition to any Mornington Peninsula is this visually stunning cliff-top walk in Portsea. As you take this short undulating track between the summer mansions of Melbourne’s A-list and their private jetties below, there are breathtaking water views across Port Phillip Bay. The walk is only 1.5 kilometers (0.93 miles) return. It is possible to enlarge the walk by starting or finishing a kilometer further on at Sorrento Park. Here’s how to do it.

The Portsea Millionaire’s Walk

The walk It is largely flat and considered an easy or “grade 1” walk. Pedestrians have right of way along the easement.

Opening and closing gates, detouring down to the beach or a jetty, and wandering through the back gardens of the wealthy residents, this walk is a feast for the senses.

It is even a small part of the Sorrento Portsea Artists Trail and you’ll see signboards of famous paintings along the route.

How to Get to the Millionaire’s Walk

With the Great Ocean Road and Bellarine peninsula to the southwest, and the Mornington Peninsula to the southeast, day-trippers from Melbourne, Victoria are spoilt for choice.

Charming villages with boutiques, galleries, seaside pubs, and restaurants vie for your attention from the wineries, bay and back beaches, and walking trails.

Millionaire’s walk diverts from Point King Road (off Point Nepean Road), via a clifftop path, to Lentell Avenue.

Point King Road and Lentell Avenue are two of the streets in the small village of Portsea, immediately south of Sorrento on the Mornington Peninsula.

Point Nepean and the wonderful Point Nepean National Park are immediately south of Portsea and your last stop on the mainland!

The walk can be done in either direction and most people turn around at the end of the walk because they have left their car at the other end!

I found parking easier at Point King Rd on a weekday than Lentell Avenue (but there is limited parking at both) and so I began the walk at what most people call the ‘end’ of the walk.

If you do begin at Point King Road, keep an eye out for the white trig station and the small stone monument immediately in front of it.

The monument is for Acting Lieutenant John Murray. Murray was the commander of the HMS Lady Nelson. In 1802 he took possession of Port King, declaring it to be a part of Great Britain and Ireland. Port King was later renamed, Port Phillip.

This spot is of historic significance because it is the first place in Australia where the Union Jack flag was used to claim possession and assert sovereignty.

Location: 3498A Point Nepean Rd, Sorrento VIC

The Millionaire’s Walking Trail

From Point King Road you head to Point King Foreshore Reserve.

Here you can take the steps down to this lovely beach with its boardwalk and bathing boxes.

Then you can continue the easy stroll along the path and through the gates along the cliff’s edge, heading away from Portsea and north towards Sorrento.

On the seaward side, looking out from the low shrubby cliff, you will spy rows of boathouses and extravagant private jetties like the one below with its own sea pool.

Each of the sections of the walk has gates and whilst there is minimal signage about the walk, there are frequent signs reminding you to keep dogs on leashes!

It feels like you are intruding onto the private property of pricey Portsea mansions, but that is all part of the charm of this lovely gentle walk.

You can see that the path is gentle and appropriate for seniors and all fitness levels.

The mansions line the landward side of the path, with a gate marked ‘private’ leading to stairways down the cliff to the jetties built to accompany the elegant houses above.

There are still a few of the original homes like the one pictured above, but you also skirt the front yards of some new mansions as well!

Even though much of the beach views down to the water involve private jetties, there are several small beaches and coves that can be accessed by stairs along the route.

Locals can be seen walking along Millionaire’s Walk carrying towels on their way to these secluded little swimming spots.

As you near Lentell Avenue, the houses become larger and there are wonderful views of Sorrento Pier and towards the Melbourne CBD.

The Sorrento Portsea Artists’ Trail

At the beginning and the end of the Millionaire’s Walk, you will find images of paintings by Streeton, Boyd, and Hodgkinson as the walk is a part of the larger Sorrento-Portsea Artists’ Trail.

As you can see from the map above, there are four images to find along the Millionaire’s Walk.

You will find this at Lentell Avenue. In fact, if you are beginning the walk at Lentell Avenue and you reach this Trail marker, you will need to turn around and look to your right.

There you’ll find the black gate that is the entrance to the Millionaire’s Walk.

The plaque is a copy of Roy Hodgkinson’s c. 1947 painting, View from Munstead Wood.

Below the plaque is one from the opposite end of the Walk. This is Point King, by Sir Arthur Streeton, 1920.

If you’d like to follow this wonderful, and still growing, Artists’ Trail, you can download the official brochure here.

And below is the end of the walk – or the beginning – the almost-hidden black gate that leads from the end of Lentell Avenue to the Millionaire’s Walk.

Further Resources

• Now that you’ve seen the Mornington Peninsula, you must see the other side of Melbourne’s coastline: the Great Ocean Road and the 12 Apostles. Where to Stay on your Great Ocean Road Holiday? See my Ultimate Guide to Great Ocean Road Accommodation here.