Driving along the Great Ocean Road
Ken Stepnell / Explore Australia Publishing

Highlights

Surf coast

Torquay is Victoria’s premier surfing town. This is where young surfers start out and old surfers settle down, where surfing is business as well as fun. Factory outlets offer great bargains on surf gear and the local Surfworld Australia museum celebrates the wonders of the wave. Bells and Jan Juc beaches are just around the corner.

Lorne

This popular resort village could be called the capital of the south-west coast, with excellent cafes and restaurants and a lively summertime crowd. It also offers good beaches and surfing opportunities. Nearby, in Great Otway National Park, beautiful forests and waterfalls provide time-out for bushwalkers and nature lovers.

The Otways

The contrast between rugged coastline and tranquil, temperate rainforest is at its most impressive in this national park. In the north, the Otway Fly takes visitors on a suspended walkway to a treetop lookout, 45 m above ground; in the south, at Cape Otway, a lighthouse offers views over the shipwreck-strewn sea. Another highlight is Melba Gully, a thicket of ferns where, at dusk, visitors can witness a show of twinkling lights from glow worms on the forest floor.

The Twelve Apostles

These spectacular limestone stacks were part of the cliffs until wind and water carved them into their present shape and left them stranded in wild surf off the shore. Preserved in Port Campbell National Park, they are one of Australia’s most photographed sights and the region’s signature attraction.

Warrnambool’s southern right whales

Each year from June to September, southern right whales can be spotted from Warrnambool’s Logans Beach; they return annually to these waters from Antarctica to give birth and raise their young. The majestic creatures and their calves regularly come within 100 metres of the coast, cavorting in the waves and blowing water into the air. There’s a purpose-built viewing platform at the beach (binoculars or a telescope are recommended), and the local visitor centre releases daily information on whale sightings.

Port Fairy

Port Fairy is a superbly preserved whaling port, with historic bluestone buildings lining the main street. In summer it offers lazy beachside holidays, and in winter, a refuge from the cold in one of the many cosy restaurants and B&Bs. The Port Fairy Folk Festival in March grows bigger each year, attracting large local and international acts.

Mount Eccles National Park

This park is at the far edge of the 20 000-year-old volcanic landscape that extends west from Melbourne. Geological features of the park include a complex cave system, scoria cones and a large lake (suitable for swimming) enclosed within three volcanic craters. There are excellent walking trails, and camping is available.

Cape Bridgewater

A two-hour walk leads to a viewing platform overlooking one of the country’s largest Australian fur seal colonies; take a boat trip into the mouth of a cave for a closer look at these charming creatures. Nearby you can see a petrified forest, thunderous blowholes and tranquil freshwater springs.

Focus On: Shipwrecks

There are about 80 wrecks along the vital yet treacherous south-west-coast shipping route. Victoria’s Historic Shipwreck Trail, between Moonlight Head (in Port Campbell National Park) and Port Fairy, marks 25 sites with plaques telling the history of the wrecks. Not to be missed is the evocative Loch Ard site, near Port Campbell. On a direct route from London to Melbourne, the Loch Ard ran into trouble while negotiating the entrance to Bass Strait; fog and haze prevented the captain from seeing that the ship was only a short distance from the cliffs. In the struggle to change direction the ship hit the cliffs and soon sank – only two people managed to swim ashore to the now well-known Loch Ard Gorge. At Flagstaff Hill Maritime Museum in Warrnambool you can see a magnificent statue of a peacock, which was being transported on the Loch Ard for display in Melbourne’s International Exhibition of 1880 and was washed ashore after the wreck. At the museum you can also watch the sound-and-laser spectacular ‘Shipwrecked’, shown nightly, which brings the tale of the Loch Ard to life.