French Island Ferry

Western Port Ferries runs the passenger service between Stony Point, on the Mornington Peninsula, and Tankerton, the main landing on French Island in Western Port Bay. The crossing takes about 15 minutes and carries foot passengers and bicycles only; there is no fare category for a car, van or motorcycle, and none of the operator's published material describes carrying vehicles on this route. Most people arrive car-free anyway: Stony Point railway station, the terminus of the Stony Point line, sits a short walk from the pier, and Transport Victoria lists the ferry as the connecting link for that line, though the crossing itself is not myki-ticketed. French Island itself has no mains electricity or sealed roads, and close to 70 percent of it lies within French Island National Park, home to one of Victoria's largest koala populations. Because the passenger ferry cannot take a car, anyone who genuinely needs to bring one across relies on a separate, smaller operation: a vehicular barge that the French Island Community Association describes running from Corinella, on the eastern side of Western Port, to a barge landing on the island, carrying two standard cars or one truck, booked ahead and run around the tides rather than a fixed timetable. That barge is a different service, from a different departure point, to the Stony Point passenger crossing described on this page. The same Western Port Ferries vessel also continues on to Cowes, on Phillip Island, on a separate leg with its own timetable, so a Stony Point departure can sometimes be bound for French Island, Cowes, or both in sequence - check which specific sailing you are booking. Being an open-water crossing on Western Port, the service is genuinely weather-dependent: the operator posts same-day cancellations for strong wind on its Service Updates page, sometimes several times in one afternoon, so it is worth checking before heading to the pier rather than only the printed timetable.