[9] Throughout the 1880s and '90s a public campaign to protect the area as a national park was waged, including by the Field Naturalists' Club of Victoria.

Wilsons Promontory National Park, also known locally as "the Prom", contains the largest coastal wilderness area in Victoria.

The only settlement within Wilsons Promontory is Tidal River which lies 30 kilometres (19 mi) south of the park boundary and is the focus for tourism and recreation.

[13] The fire began on 8 February, the day after "Black Saturday", where an intense heat wave, combined with arson, faulty electrical infrastructure and natural causes, led to hundreds of bushfires burning throughout the state of Victoria.

Although the fire burned to within 1 kilometre (0.62 mi), the Tidal River camping area and park headquarters were unaffected.

Tourists may choose basic or glam, cabins or camping (powered/unpowered) if they wish to stay inside Wilsons Promontory National Park.

"[6]Despite Wilson being significant enough for such a large amount of land to be named in his honour, he had slipped into obscurity until 2023, when new research was published by the Royal Australian Historical Society.

Wilson was in fact one of the most important promoters of the study of the natural history of New South Wales, as Eastern Australia was then known, in the late 18th and early 19th centuries.

White dedicated his far-reaching and substantial account of the First Fleet to Wilson, entitled Journal of a Voyage to New South Wales[18] Coastal features include expansive intertidal mudflats, sandy beaches and sheltered coves interrupted by prominent headlands and plunging granite cliffs in the south, backed by coastal dunes and swamps.

This is due to the large number of tea trees in the location, which stain the water with tannin, giving it a tea-like appearance.

The peninsula is also home to kangaroos, snakes, wallabies, koalas, long-nosed potoroos, white-footed dunnarts, broad-toothed rats, feather-tailed gliders and emus.

Some of the most common birds found on the promontory include crimson rosellas, yellow-tailed black cockatoos and superb fairywrens.

[21] Wilsons Promontory has an Oceanic climate (Cfb) heavily influenced by the Roaring Forties, bringing summer temperatures far below what is the norm on mainland Australia at sea level.