Location
Portarlington is at the northern-most tip of the Bellarine Peninsula, between Indented Head and Clifton Springs. It is about 31km from Geelong city.

Description
Portarlington is not the major holiday resort it was 100 years ago but is still a popular and established seaside resort. Like many towns on the peninsula, Portarlington is also increasingly popular with people who now commute to work. Between Drysdale and Indented Head, Portarlington still affords great views of the You Yangs. A reserve to the west of town and the foreshore reserve between the Esplanade and the beach, maintain the bayside resort atmosphere. The town has some of the best boating facilities on the peninsula with many boat ramps and a sizeable jetty that straddles deeper water. Portarlington Holiday Park, a huge caravan and camping park on the beach, is just west of the old steam flour mill, built in 1857, and open to the public today. Portarlington also has its own 18-hole golf course and many other sporting facilities, ovals and reserves.

History
Early land buyers saw the potential of Portarlington as a holiday resort for Geelong and Melbourne, although development was slow at first. The opening of a pier for the nearby flour mill and local farm produce also opened the town to inbound sea traffic and the seaside resort grew quickly. Thousands of Melbourne holidaymakers took the one-hour trip on a steamer from Williamstown before the turn of the 19th century. The shore was sheltered and the rising land behind it afforded superb views across the bay to the You Yangs, Melbourne and the Dandenong Ranges. The white-balustraded Grand Hotel was built after the Family Hotel in 1888. Baths were built on the foreshore. The town was neatly laid out along broad streets planted in some cases with English elms and pines. A postal service began in the 1860s, and a 'Free and Circulating Library' opened soon after to cope with the demands of Melbourne and Geelong travellers.