history of the Great Ocean Rd

In the 1870s, a trip from Lorne to Geelong; visitors travelled un­comfortably via a rough coach track through dense bush to the rail­way at Winchel­sea. Early plans for an ocean road emerged in the 1880s but were only taken seriously in the new century.

New impetus for an ocean road came towards the end of WWI. The Country Roads Board contacted the State War Council, asking that funds be provided to repat­riate and re-employ returned soldiers on roads in sparsely populated areas. A plan was soon submitted for a South Coast Road to be built by returned soldiers as a memorial to all those who were killed in the Great War. This plan suggested starting at Barwon Heads, following the coast west around Cape Otway and ending near Warrnambool.

It was Geelong mayor Alderman Howard Hitchcock who made the plans happen. By May 1918 he had formed the Great Ocean Rd Trust and set about raising the money to finance the project. He saw it as a way of emp­loy­­ing return­ed WW1 soldiers AND of creating a lasting monument to those who had died in the war. He also had a powerful view of its worth as a tourist attraction, proclaiming it better for its ocean, mountain, river and fern gully scenery than France’s Riviera or San Francisco Road.

Great Ocean Road

hugging the coastline

Map of an early stage of the Great Ocean Road

along the southern coastline of Australia's mainland

Survey work began in Aug 1918 and the returned WW1 soldiers descended on the area to start work. Construction work officially began in Sept 1919, launched by the Premier of Victoria. The first section was to go from Lorne to Cape Patton, 29 ks away. It was back-breaking work with no heavy machinery to help – only picks, shovels and horse-drawn carts. The ex-servicemen lived in camps set up in the bush along the route. Often it was a very dang­erous job: the terrain was dif­ficult and the weather was extremely hot or extremely wet. Rock­ falls were common. Nonetheless the Lorne to Eastern View section was completed in early 1922.

In Nov 1932 Victoria’s Lieut Gov Sir William Irvine declared the road open in front of Lorne's Grand Pacific Hotel, the site where the proj­ect's first survey peg had been hammered in 14 years before. The coast roared into life for a weekend of festivities, with residents coming out in droves to celebrate the final link-up of the seaside towns. A procession of cars and schoolchildren lined parts of the route.

Road travellers during the early years paid a toll at gates at Eastern View, where a memorial arch was erected. Drivers paid 2s and 6p, and passengers 1s and 6p. The toll was abolished when the Trust moved to hand over the road as a gift to the State Government, in Oct 1936.

In summary, the Great Ocean Road stretched along the S.E coast of Australia between the cities of Geelong and Warrnam­bool. This, the world's biggest WW1 memorial, wound around the rugged southern coast and was a huge engineering feat. In total, the road took 16 years to finish, all done by hand using picks, shov­els and dynamite. The main gate, a timber arch, has been rebuilt several times.

The Great Ocean Rd Story is a permanent exhibition in the Lorne Visitor Centre – a memorial to Australia's diggers who died while fighting in WWI. The visitors' centre was built to provide some basic facilities for the thousands of tourists who visit each year.

The road still offers outstanding views of Bass Strait and the Southern Ocean, one of the most photogenic coastlines in the world, with striking and dramatic natural rock formations. These form­at­ions include the Grotto, London Bridge and especially the Twelve Apostles (fewer now).

Wander through beautifully preserved historic buildings, in towns en route, that capt­ure the region's colourful past. Charming National Trust-classified homes, modest cottages and stately buildings are everywhere you look in Port Fairy, while Portland, Victoria's first European settlement, is an old and ch­arm­ing place on the edge of a harbour once busier than Melbourne.

The Twelve Apost­les
Port Campbell

Loch Ard Gorge
Port Campbell National Park

Learn about the heritage of western Victoria's Gunditjmara people. Go with a local guide see native wildlife or sample bush foods of the area. Visit the ancient Budj Bim Cultural Land­scape at Lake Condah, a permanent Aboriginal settlement and aqua­culture site. Get an Aboriginal perspective on sacred sites, flora, fauna, volcanic land formations, bush survival and traditional med­icinal practices at Tower Hill State Game Reserve.

Discover the tragic shipwreck history of Victoria's coast. Visit shipwreck sites along the coastline, examine local lore at the Flagstaff Hill Maritime Village and visit historic light-houses. Learn the tragedy of the Loch Ard Gorge near Port Campbell in 1878, one of the most infamous of Victoria's ship wrecks. Stroll on the beaches on the iconic Great Ocean Walk. And spend time exploring the Aust­ral­ian National Surfing Museum in Vic­t­oria's surf capital of Torquay.

Today the Great Ocean Road is Victoria’s top tourist attraction with 2.7 million visitors, more than Uluru and the Great Barrier Reef combined. But it is not just increased traffic that is creating headaches. Flash flooding caused landslides near Wye River in 2016, and Apollo Bay beach erosion increased from 9 cent­imetres per year in 2012 to 1 metre in 2016. In 2018 a storm surge caused chunks of an Apollo Bay car park and facilities to fall into the ocean, leav­ing only a five-metre sliver of land between sea and the road. 30 buses use the road every day, and up to 80 at peak times. Most people head straight to the main attraction: the Twelve Apost­les. Perhaps a levy or road toll on visitors could be part of a new funding model.

Coronavirus aside, today is 25th April, ANZAC Day. Lest we forget.