The Great Ocean Road

Dangerous sea travel

Conditions at sea were often very bad. Many sailing ships and steamships crashed into the cliffs. So many ships crashed, that the area became like a graveyard for ships. One famous shipwreck was very bad, and only two people survived (>> see Loch Ard Gorge story).

Around the time of the First World War, people made some rough roads, to the large towns. But still, only the bravest people would use these roads.

A Bold Plan

In 1916, a man called Mr W. Calder, proposed a bold plan. Many soldiers were returning from the war, and needed work. Calder's plan was to build a road along the coast, all the way from Barwon Heads to Nirranda, near Warrnambool. It would be dangerous work, and it would take a long time.

Calder wanted to pay the soldiers with public money. He also wanted to make the road in memory of soldiers who had died during the war.

Building success

The road went through many different kinds of landscape, through forests, along cliffs and past deep gorges. It was very hard work, and very well built.

Finally, this scenic highway, called the Great Ocean Road, was finished. In 1932, the Governor of Victoria opened the road.

At first, drivers had to pay a toll to use the road, two shillings and sixpence (25 cents) per car, at Fairhaven. Now the road is free to travel on.

... and Tourism

The tourist trade has also grown a lot in the last sixty years. Now hundreds of thousands of tourists, from all around the world, visit the southern coast of Victoria. They travel from the Bellarine Peninsula (Geelong, and Barwon Heads) to the Otway Ranges (between Lorne and Apollo Bay) and beyond.

All these tourists drive along the Great Ocean Road. One of the most famous tourist sights is the Twelve Apostles, near Port Campbell.

Many people also come to see the surfing carnivals at Bells Beach in Torquay, to go fishing, swimming, surfing, bushwalking in the Otway Ranges, to visit a lighthouse, or just to go walking along the beach.