Great Ocean Road

Before heading off on the Great Ocean Road, Geelong is worth visiting – the city fathers have allocated a fortune into rejuvenating the place, especially along Corio Bay (see A Load of Old Bollards) The beginning of the Great Ocean Road has some of Australia's best surfing beaches. These include Torquay and Bells Beach.

Torquay is a major centre for the manufacture of surfing gear and many claim it has the best waves west of Hawaii. The Surfworld Surfing Museum includes displays from historic memorabilia to interactive videos. Bells Beach frequently hosts major international surfing championships. The swell can reach 4 metres but on my last visit it was very gentle; there were still a few optimists sitting above the sedate rolls to say that they had ‘surfed Bells’. Some surfers from the northern States believe Victorian surfers are lazy, because the waves take them all the way into the beach and then it’s just a walk to the point and a short paddle out again. Others would say they were lucky.

Angelsea is a lovely spot to stop for a round of golf because you’ll share the course with grazing kangaroos. Lorne feels a little ‘surf ‘n’ chic’, with its tasteful, eco-friendly housing looking over the water. The chimneys on many of them point out that it’s not a ‘sun and sand’ resort all year round. Apollo Bay also has good surf but is less chic and more ‘family’. The fish and chips, and fish souvlaki are excellent.

The 13 000-hectare Otway National Park, with its towering rainforest trees, straddles the Great Ocean Road as it nips inland west of Apollo Bay.

A gentle 45-minute walk from Maits Rest wanders through ferns, mossy gullies, and beech and myrtle trees, some 300 years old. The old Cape Otway Lighthouse is at the end of a short track, which runs south from the main road 4 kilometres beyond Maits Rest.

Standing on the southernmost point along the Great Ocean Road, it marked the entrance to Bass Strait and, for its first 50 years, was only accessible by boat.

A modern solar-powered light now does the job. Lighthouse tours and accommodation (booking is a must) are available.

One of the most spectacular stretches of coastline is the 27-kilometre stretch of the Port Campbell National Park. This area is home to the postcard-pretty Twelve Apostles, which jut out of the sea near the limestone cliffs to which they once belonged.

Yes, they are incredibly beautiful, but there is a feeling of an anti-climax because we’ve all seen them before in photographs and, unlike Uluru, there is no feeling of spirituality. This is not to suggest you should drive on by. For those feeling fit, Gibson Steps lead down a 70-metre cliff face to a beach, to give a sea level view of the amazing outcrops.

Lookouts have been placed at strategic points along the coast, which is the graveyard for many ships. The winds and pounding waves leave no doubt about its name, The Shipwreck Coast. The most famous of the 160 ships to meet a watery grave was the Loch Ard, a huge iron clipper ship, which hit a reef in 1878 carrying 54 people from England.

The main lookouts are the Loch Ard Gorge and London Bridge which was a double arch rock formation formed by the sea until one arch collapsed in 1990, stranding a couple of nervous tourists.

Port Campbell is small and friendly; Warrnambool is big and friendly. For some hard-to-decide eating choices in Warrnambool, head down Liebig Street to Timor Street for Mexican, Japanese, seafood, family - even Scottish. Lady Bay Beach and the adjacent, award-winning adventure playground is a popular picnic spot, and nearby protected Stingray Bay is extremely safe for young kids.

Seeing little penguins on a tour is a delight but discovering them for yourself gives you a much bigger thrill. At Stingray Bay in Warrnambool, my then nine-year-old son found one in a small rookery, just sitting, moulting, as they do (penguins, not nine-year-old boys).

He picked up on the smell and further exploring uncovered a few more little caves and around ten of the little critters. Sadly, on the headland we found quite a few more dead ones. At extremely low tides, foxes and packs of dogs cross the channel to the headland and run amok.

The Flagstaff Hill Maritime Museum presents the way an early-fortified coastal town may have looked, incorporating 1887 fortifications, and old and re-created buildings. It has two working lighthouses and a collection of vessels from bygone days, including a small passenger steamer.

Warnambool is also a breeding ground for the rare Southern Right whales (May to September). These giants grow to 15 metres and 60 tonnes. An observation platform overlooking the shallow water of nearby Logans Beach provides good views of the mothers with their calves.

Tower Hill was Victoria’s first designated National Park (1892). Settlers clearing the land had virtually devastated it and a re-vegetation program began, based on an early painting by Eugene Von Guerard. It was so detailed it allowed plant species to be identified, and the painting now hangs in the Warrnambool Art Gallery. Tower Hill is a natural free-roaming haven for kangaroos, emus, koalas and a variety of water birds.

From Warrnambool it’s 15 kilometres to Port Fairy, which is an absolute delight – the sort of town you enter and say, ‘I could live here’, with gorgeous waterways and homes with gardens full of pride and talent. After a perfectly cooked breakfast served with a smile, we wandered past old houses and pubs and found a house for sale - tastefully renovated with a superb garden, its own jetty and a P.O.A. on the sign. Curiosity got the better and we stuck our head into the real estate agency to A about the P. It was $890 000 – Oh well.

Along the coast is Portland: larger, and still a nice spot, but it hovers under the umbrella of being ‘industrial’. Nelson marks the end of the road and pretty much the State. It’s a sleepy little place where you can hop a relaxing river cruise and visit the Princess Margaret Rose Cave. There are good bushwalks and a wild, sweeping, walkable but unswimmable beach. A sign tells you that the hooded plover is down to around 600 thanks to foxes and, if you have kids, stick to the main tracks as 1080 poison baits have been laid to improve the odds for the wee, shy birdies.

Self drive CD or MP3 audio guides for the Great Ocean Road and Shipwreck Coast

More Information

For more information about Victoria:

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