Great Ocean Road Attractions

The Great Ocean Road, built to provide employment during the economic depression of the early 1930s, gives access to more than 300km of spectacular coastal scenery.

Highlights:	Surroundings	Lorne, Australia

Portland, Australia

Highlights:	Lower Glenelg National Park	Surroundings

Warrnambool, Australia

Highlights:	Port Fairy, Australia	Surroundings

Apollo Bay, Australia

Apollo Bay (pop. 890) is a good base for excursions into the Cape Otway hills on roads of great scenic beauty (often unsurfaced and with many bends). The town's economy centers on the fishing industry (fish-freezing plant), and for anglers there is good sport in the sea and the mountain streams. There are excellent surfing beaches on the rugged coast, on which many ships have come to grief. There are fine views from Marriner's Lookout.

Surroundings

At Apollo Bay the Great Ocean Road leaves the coast and runs inland to the Otway Ranges.

In Melba Gully State Park, near Lavers Hill, there is an area of fern forest (also found in abundance in the rain forest on Cape Otway).

Otway National Park

12,750ha.

The Great Ocean Road runs through the park, an area of impressive and varied scenery - deep depressions overgrown with ferns, dense eucalyptus forests, cool temperate rain forest, heathland and a magnificent stretch of coast between Apollo Bay and Princeton. On Cape Otway, 14km south of the Great Ocean Road, is a lighthouse built by convict labor in 1848.

Picture - Hopetoun Falls in Otway National Park.

Picture - Lighthouse at Cape Otway in Otway National Park.

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Colac, Australia

Colac (pop. 10,060) attracts visitors with its situation on Lake Colac (good fishing, water sports). On the shores of the lake are the large Botanic Gardens. The town and surrounding area are fairly densely populated, thanks largely to the fertile agricultural country round Colac.

Surroundings

From the Alvie Red Rock Lookout, near Colac, 20 volcanic lakes can be seen.

To the west of Colac is Lake Corangamite, the largest salt lake in Victoria.

Beautiful winding roads run south from the town of Colac through impressive mountain scenery to join the Great Ocean Road and from there farther south to Cape Otway (old lighthouse).

Port Campbell National Park

1750ha.

Port Campbell National Park takes in the best known and most spectacular stretch of the Great Ocean Road, with magnificent views of a series of interesting rock formations - the Twelve Apostles, Muttonbird Island, London Bridge, Loch Ard Gorge. The Shipwreck Trail Coastal Walk running along the top of the cliffs has memorial tablets recalling the many shipwrecks on this coast, such as that of the clipper Loch Ard which ran aground on a reef in 1878 with the loss of 52 lives. Also impressive are the cliffs to the west of Peterborough, the Bay of Martyrs and the Bay of Islands. The limestone rocks along the coast have been eaten away over millions of years by fierce waves and winds, creating gorges and gullies, arches, blowholes and sheer, rugged cliffs.