Safety Beach, Martha Cove, Dromana, McCrae, Rosebud, Boneo

The coast road from Mount Martha drops down to sea level at Safety Beach and near-neighbour Martha Cove, a house and marina development linked to Port Phillip via what was once a creek that now runs above the road. Here is the start of a 22km stretch with seven distinctive seaside towns. Martha Cove has houses and apartments, marina berths, parks and playgrounds, and a public boardwalk.

Wrapping around it is Safety Beach, a holiday destination for more than a century that became much more popular when its name was changed from Shark Bay.

Dromana is a historic town with modern amenities and a wonderful foreshore with picnic tables, free gas barbecues and quiet shady spots. Here is an award-winning supermarket; restaurants, cafes and hotel; historic Heronswood and its heirloom seed outlet; and a multiscreen drive-in. The town’s industrial area is home to breweries, distilleries, vintage stores and homeware outlets.

The fount of all tourism knowledge is Dromana Visitor Information Centre on Point Nepean Rd – on the way to McCrae, best known for McCrae Homestead, built by pioneers soon after European settlement in the 1840s, and its historic lighthouse, recently restored.

Rosebud has a busy commercial centre with three malls, restaurants, cafes and takeaway outlets, and a multi-screen cinema.

Between McCrae, Rosebud, Capel Sound, Tootgarook and Rye is about 12km of foreshore camp sites – almost 1000 sites among shade trees where generations of families have made holiday memories beside

sparkling waters. Servicing this visiting population are countless food and clothing shops and other places offering life’s necessities.