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25 October 2024 · Mazda Stories

Where The Wild Things Are

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By Alex Inwood

Wagons were once the go-to for all Australian family holidays, so to prove some things never go out of style we take the evergreen Mazda 6 wagon on a road trip to the breathtakingly wild Wilsons Promontory.

It’s not a wombat that nearly does us in. It’s not a kangaroo either, although we have seen plenty of them. No, it’s the sudden shock view. One minute, our drive to Australia’s southernmost point is passing by just as it has for the last hour, which is to say on a road that’s almost completely treed-in by dense scrub. The next, the view out of the windscreen changes so suddenly it seems to explode with jaw-dropping beauty.

This, I learn later, is what the locals call “the reveal” and it’s the moment Wilsons Promontory finally comes into full view as you tip over the southern side of the mountain range. It really should come with a warning, this reveal, because it’s so breathtaking and so easy to get transfixed on the pale-blue ocean and the jutting shoreline, which is littered with gigantic silver and orange boulders, that I almost forgot to turn the steering wheel of my plush Mazda6 for the next corner.

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Mercifully, in our case, with a combination of the Mazda6’s reassuring Lane-keep Assist System and photographer Alastair squealing: “Oh we need to get a shot of that!” concurrently, I was able to pull over and collect myself.

So what are we doing all the way down here? Well, we’re on something of a noble mission. You could even call it a crusade. You see, we’re here to revive the iconic Aussie road trip, with the help of our Mazda6 G35 GT SP Wagon.

Unlike family holidays today, which often involve an easy flight to the Gold Coast or Bali, if you’re of a certain age you’ll know a yearly getaway used to mean long drives in the family car. And more often than not, it wasn’t a car but a station wagon.

Oh sure, us kids would complain about the endless hours in the back seat (with not an iPad in sight) and about how Dad had filled up every available square inch with luggage, but secretly we loved those trips. We loved the games of I Spy and Spotto, of thinking up subtle ways to tease our siblings, of enjoying the satisfaction of simply being a family.

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These days it’s different. I Spy has been usurped by “devices” and wireless headphones. Books have transformed into phones crammed with technicolour games. And the trusty family wagon has been swamped by a rising tide of high-riding SUVs. Or has it?

Just like vinyl and automatic watches, the humble wagon is making a bit of a comeback and there are now more ‘long roof’ options in showrooms than there have been in years. Mazda never abandoned the wagon though, of course. The Mazda 6 wagon has been a mainstay on Aussie roads for decades and our gleaming Sonic silver example, complete with fetching burgundy leather interior that’s fitted as standard on the GT SP model grade, is a shining reminder of what makes them so great. Gosh it’s a looker, isn’t it? Handsome and sportily proportioned, you’d scarcely believe it has more luggage space than most mid-size SUVs.

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So if the wagon is back in vogue, then why not the family road trip? And where better to go than Wilsons Promontory, which, aside from being a reasonable three hours out of Melbourne, is bursting with so much wildlife, so many bushnwalks, and so much natural beauty that it feels like another country altogether.

Before we can delve into what ‘The Prom’ has to offer, though, we need to break free of Melbourne’s urban jungle. I collect photographer Alastair from St Kilda and it’s here we encounter the first real test for the wagon: swallowing his camera gear.

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Perhaps overly excited by the prospect of meeting some cute wombats – Alastair lovingly calls them “wombies” – and epic sunsets from lofty lookouts, it seems our photographer has brought every piece of camera gear he owns. Including a drone. Normally squeezing in such a motley mix of bulky bags would require some serious Tetris work but in our wagon it fits so easily we don’t even have to unclip the parcel shelf to liberate more room.

With Melbourne traffic behind us, the highway leg towards Gippsland is a welcome reminder of just what a fantastic long-distance cruiser the Mazda6 is. The ride is supple and controlled and the cabin is so quiet and isolated from wind and tyre noise that we hardly have to raise our voices to talk, even on coarse-chip roads. After a quick lunch in the picturesque village of Loch (the passionfruit sponge is superb), we point the 6’s nose at some of the best driving roads in Victoria – the stretch between Loch and Kongwak.

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This is where the real advantage of buying a wagon over an SUV comes to the fore. Where an SUV is taller and heavier and has more body roll, the 6 Wagon is wonderfully athletic and engaging. The accurate steering is a particular highlight, as is the power of the 2.5-litre turbo engine, and the grip and confidence on offer from the low-slung chassis. It’s a hoot.

With the windy roads behind us, the landscape starts to change subtly. The rolling green hills and Friesian cows of Gippsland slowly give way to gnarly, beachy scrub that’s densely packed and hunched over, as if it’s sheltering from the elements. Of which there are plenty down at The Prom. The Roaring Forties rage down here, smashing Australia’s southernmost tip with a relentlessness that has shaped the landscape.

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The winds are calm today, though, and after stopping to greet our first wombie – the drive into the Wilsons Prom national park has a designated ‘animal viewing area’ where you’re almost guaranteed to meet a wombat or kangaroo – we head towards Tidal Rival and park up for a hike to Mount Oberon.

We’re told the look out at the top, which is about an hour’s climb from the carpark, is a truly spectacular place to watch the sun go down. So with Alastair’s drone under my arm, we head off. The climb itself is easy, but when we emerge at the top, we’re treated to our second big reveal of the day. It’s all the more dramatic because the climb up is almost totally treed-in, giving you no sense of how high you really are. At 558m tall, the rocky outcrop at the top of Mount Oberon doesn’t only provide panoramic views, it gives us the first inkling of just how big the park is. It’s amazingly wild down here, the landscape almost Jurassic in appearance and feel, and it’s easy to see why The Prom is so popular with outdoors types.  

Today, though, we’re the only people for miles. The isolation is almost unsettling and as we watch the sun creep towards the horizon, its rays shooting through the clouds like giant golden fingers, it’s hard not to be awed by the scale of it all.

The walk back to the Mazda6 is dark and a little freaky, but the 35km drive back to our overnight accommodation in nearby Yanakie verges on fraught. Again, we’re the only car for miles and there’s an alarming number of eyeballs shining back at us from the bush near the roadside. “It’s wombie hour!” laughs Alastair just as we fly past a wallaby, its grey, expressionless face looming out of the darkness so suddenly that we don’t talk again until we pull up for the night.   

We’re up early the next morning to climb the enormous sand dunes of Big Drift, which is a gigantic expanse of sand that feels more like Big Red in the Simpson Desert than it does coastal Victoria, and again it’s the variety of the landscape in The Prom that stands out. Where else can you be within a stone’s throw of vast dunes with gorgeous, unspoiled beaches on one side and sprawling dairy farms on the other?

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Our final stop is the deservedly popular Squeaky Beach, an expanse of pristine white sand named for the unique sound your feet make as you walk. It, too, is wondrously unspoiled, its curving shoreline dotted with gigantic, ancient-feeling boulders covered with bright orange algae. It’s otherworldly down here, I decide, as I climb to the top of a boulder to take in yet another amazing view. A collection of landscapes, vistas and other geographic marvels that are so enormous and so untouched by progress that it’s hard not to reflect on your own tiny place in the world.

Or perhaps that’s the isolation talking. While I’m positive this beach would be crammed with people on the weekend, and a real zoo during the holiday season, today we are so alone that we haven’t seen another person for hours.

It’s good for the soul, this kind of road trip. It’s good for relationships, too, and more importantly, it’s good for families. And our sleek Mazda6 Wagon has been the perfect companion to get us here. Oh sure, an SUV would easily make the same trip, but as we clamber back into our its wonderfully comfortable leather seats and start the meandering trip back to Melbourne, I can’t think of another car that feels so effortless, or quite so purpose-built for a family getaway. Some things, it seems, never go out of style.