Sorrento 16°C Sunset 5:48 pm Bay glassy, tide low Winter Insider · June 2026

Peninsula Tip · Town

Sorrento & Portsea

Blairgowrie

Blairgowrie yacht club and foreshore with moored boats

Photo · Peninsula Insider

Blairgowrie is a coastal township on the Mornington Peninsula's western tip, 95 km from Melbourne, between Sorrento and Rye on the Port Phillip Bay shoreline.

Blairgowrie is the quieter neighbour between Rye and Sorrento - the stretch of front beach that still feels like a holiday pattern most of the Peninsula gave up on. The yacht club runs a working moorings marina that defines the skyline; the foreshore is unbroken sand you can swim off without fighting a crowd; and the shops are mostly limited to a pub, a bakery, a couple of cafés and a deli, which is most of what you need. The back beach (Bridgewater Bay) is five minutes inland and quieter still. Blairgowrie rewards the kind of weekend that's built around walking the foreshore, reading on a beach towel, and not making a plan until dinner. It's the last town before the tourist-district tone of Sorrento and the first one where families still outnumber influencers.

The gap between Rye and Sorrento — less talked about, underrated for a Peninsula base.

Is Blairgowrie the right base?

Who this place rewards — and who should keep driving

It's for

  • quiet beach stays
  • access to the Rye ocean beach

It's not for

  • late-night energy
  • people who want a busy main street

Expecting a town centre worth lingering in — Blairgowrie is about the foreshore, not the strip.

Blairgowrie in brief

Blairgowrie in four lines

  1. 01 Blairgowrie is the quieter town between Rye and Sorrento — a working marina, uncrowded bay beach, and one of the Peninsula's best dive sites off the back-beach pier.
  2. 02 Best for: divers (sea dragons and octopus at the Blairgowrie pier); families who want Sorrento's position without the summer crowds.
  3. 03 Signature experience: morning dive at the back-beach pier, then walk the foreshore to the pub for lunch.
  4. 04 Half a day to full day; pairs naturally with Rye or Sorrento.

A perfect day here

A day in Blairgowrie

Foreshore walk at breakfast, swim on the bay side, lunch at the pub, Bridgewater Bay for the last light.

The front beach around Camerons Bight stays calmer and less chaotic than Sorrento even in high summer.

— Editor's note

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Blairgowrie on the Peninsula

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Blairgowrie, by location

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