Where to base yourself
A compact city where almost everything is within ten minutes of everything else, at the western end of the Great Ocean Road. Where you stay mostly decides whether you wake up near the water or near the shops.
The city centre around Liebig Street, with the shops, restaurants and pubs. The stadium on Caramut Road is a few minutes away, and so is everything else. This is the practical base if you are here to play, and the town is small enough that "central" still means quiet by capital-city standards.
The beach, the promenade, Lake Pertobe's playgrounds and the breakwater, all along the southern edge of town. Motels and holiday units, and a flat walk into the centre. Bear in mind that swimming here is a summer proposition in cold water — this is a coast for walking as much as for bathing.
The eastern side of town, near the whale nursery viewing platform where southern right whales come in to calve between roughly June and September. Residential and quiet, ten minutes from the centre, and the obvious base if you are here in winter for the whales as much as the pickleball.
Half an hour west: a genuinely beautiful fishing village with a heritage main street, Norfolk pines, a river full of boats and one of the country's best-known folk festivals. Cottages and small hotels rather than motels. Worth a night or two even if you are only here for a weekend.
Warrnambool sits on a major touring route, so there are caravan and holiday parks near the foreshore and around the fringes with everything from powered sites to cabins. Good value outside summer, and the sensible option if you are working your way along the Great Ocean Road.
East towards the Twelve Apostles, an hour or so away. A small clifftop town with limited accommodation that books out fast in summer. Stay here if the coast is the point of the trip and Warrnambool is the town you drive into for supplies — and for a session.
Nobody pays to appear here and we take nothing from anyone you book with. Sessions and venues sit on where to play; everything else in the district is on things to do.