Fort Queenscliff — Attraction in Queenscliff

The Public should be aware that it is cash only, no tickets or advance purchase and there is no cashier, you sign in with photo ID and hand cash to the guide. That being said you should know you cannot walk around and explore on your own as it is supposed to very a working defence facility (did not see any defence personelle, only 1 civvie security guard and it was deadly quiet). Be aware that this "tour" is very hands off, lecture style, so quite boring for children. There is nothing for them to do but sit or stand and listen. The very elderly contracted tour guide was struggling to engage her audience, struggling to get around with her walking stick and struggling with her hearing. She often went on tangents of personal anecdotes and didn't know how to captivate or enthrall an audience. It was like getting a lesson from an old 1950s school teacher. She was very out of touch with relating to the younger generations, bless her heart, she wasn't even nice, very bossy. It was extremely uninteresting and dull. We left 1.5 hours into it to avoid appearing rude, I should have run 5 minutes into it but they literally locked us in and we were strictly instructed not to leave and not to leave the group. This was the most boring experience of my life. The town is boring as bat* too so couldn't even redeem the 45 minute trip to make the whole thing worth it. We just packed up and drove home in disappointed silence. Didn't learn much, the photos shared were tattered, uninteresting, out of focus, and pulled from her handbag. She did say other tour guides do tours in January when the defence contracts more guides due to tourist demand - maybe others do it professionally and with greater interest and other things to see/touch/experience? Honestly, we just strolled slowly beside old love and heard about old buildings without going inside or exploring anything in any depth. You've got to stay together as a group and vaguely walk around a small area. The tour wasn't on time and didn't start until 25 minutes past 11 instead of 11. There were two signs at the front gate with two different costs. One says children $8 and the other $10. Adults $20, a family $35. For a completely passive experience it should be free - you get nothing interactive or engaging for your money. Hopefully Tourism Vic acquires the facility and turns it into something viable and worth visiting. There is one male and one female toilet, (no baby change facilities) you may only access at the time the guide says. It was very strict - seemingly weird as not a soul was around to 'disrupt' or 'interfere with defence activities'. I cannot stress enough how...

Highly recommend that you do not bother.

We booked tickets as we drove there. Didn’t need to cos only two other people had shown up anyway. Sign out front says ID required. One of our group only had an NZ drivers license which they didn’t accept. They offered to stay outside while the rest of the group went on the tour. One of the men, taking the names, said that we didn’t have to do that and if we called Liz on Monday she would give us a full refund. We checked with the grump, rude and dismissive tour guide Steve who said that we could and gave us the number to call Liz Fountain to arrange a refund. At this point the two other people in the tour started pointing out how rude Steve was being. We asked the man sitting down “are you sure we can get a refund cos this makes us nervous.” The guy, who was a bit nicer than Steve, PROMISED it would be Ok (I promise you will get a refund) so rather than the other 5 getting a tour, all 6 of us left. We rang a very rude Liz on Monday who instantly said no we couldn’t. She hung up on us promising to call back soon. She never did and did not answer our phone calls again making it impossible to resolve the situation.

I wish we had read this reviews before we booked. The people we dealt with were so rude and afterwards, we realised they just don’t care about their customers.

Don’t bother driving the 1hr and half from Melbourne thinking you’ll be treated like valued customers. Go elsewhere. From other reviews here it doesn’t sound like it was worth the money we...

We visited Fort Queenscliff on a cool and drizzly Sunday. It turned out to be a great choice of activity for the day. Mary, our tour guide was excellent value. She shared her extensive knowledge with us and, over a period of two hours, made the whole experience most entertaining. Loved your sense of humour Mary! Excellent presentation. More publicity should be given to this place of Military History. People need to know why it was necessary to defend the entrance to Port Phillip in 1860 and beyond. It is sad to see how the Fort is deteriorating without adequate funds and support. We must value our historical sights as they...