Sorrento Sunset 5:35 PM
Winter Insider · August 2026 Winter 2026
Contemporary sculptures set among coastal grasses at Point Leo Estate, looking toward Western Port
Photo · Peninsula Insider
Point Leo is a small coastal locality on the Mornington Peninsula's Western Port coast, 85 km from Melbourne, anchored by a long-standing surf break, the Point Leo Foreshore Reserve camp ground and Point Leo Estate's sculpture park, restaurant and cellar door.
Point Leo is a beach, a surf break, and one of the most ambitious privately held sculpture parks in the country - and almost nothing else. The village barely qualifies as a village - a foreshore camping ground, a surf life-saving club, a quiet residential pocket - but pull off the road into Point Leo Estate and you find sixteen hectares of contemporary sculpture rolling toward the bay, a hatted dining room with one of the great Australian wine lists, and a cellar door that takes itself only as seriously as it should. The break out front is the Peninsula's most consistent right-hander, and the longboard contest that turns up here each year is the real local calendar. People come to Point Leo for a quiet morning at the beach, an unhurried afternoon among the sculptures, and a long dinner with a Pinot Noir flight. That sequence is the entire reason to come.
Sixteen hectares of contemporary sculpture rolling toward Western Port - and one of the Peninsula's quietest surf breaks out front.
Is Point Leo the right base?
Treating Point Leo Estate as just lunch - the sculpture park is the reason to be here.
Point Leo in brief
A perfect day here
Walk the sculpture park on opening, long lunch at the Estate restaurant, afternoon surf check or beach walk, sunset cellar-door flight before driving on.
The Estate is open from 11 - arrive before opening to park easily and to have the first hour of the sculpture park almost to yourself.
- Editor's note
Planning guides
Long-form editorial that helps you build a weekend, not just a list of places.
Keep going
Because a Peninsula trip is always made up of two or three pockets, not one.
Ocean Coast · town
Flinders sits on the wild southern edge of the Peninsula and carries itself with a kind of salt-air confidence. The village is compact but smart - a bakery, a handful of good shops, an old pub, and a coastline that feels a world away from the bay-facing polish further north. Base yourself here if you want your mornings to begin with wind off Bass Strait, your afternoons with a drive back inland for lunch, and your evenings under a harder, cleaner sky.
Red Hill · village
Merricks is where the Peninsula's wine country starts to feel private. There is almost no main street to speak of, just a low-slung hall, winding vineyard roads, and a cluster of estates and restaurants that reward people who know where to turn off. The light is softer here than in Red Hill proper and the bay feels unexpectedly close. It is one of the Peninsula's best places to stay if your idea of a weekend away means vines outside the window, lunch that goes too long, and very little noise.
Ocean Coast · village
Shoreham barely qualifies as a village, and that is exactly its charm. A store, a hall, a tangle of narrow roads threading down to one of the loveliest small beaches on the Peninsula, and a handful of vineyards and olive groves that quietly produce some of the region's best fruit. The beach is family-scaled and protected enough for children, the bush behind it runs into Point Leo, and the drive up onto the ridge puts you in cellar door country within ten minutes. This is where locals go when the southern beaches start to feel loud and the long weekend crowd has swallowed Sorrento. Park once, walk to the beach, and stay until the light goes.
On the map
Every editorially verified pin in Point Leo on one screen - toggle a category, click any marker for the editor's note.
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The Insider Note
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