About the Great Ocean Road - Transport & car rental - Accommodation - Tours - Photos - Map

Great Ocean Road

The magnificent coastline called the Great Ocean Road stretches from Geelong in Victoria all the way east to the border of South Australia. It is lined with awesome views and spectacular natural attractions, most notably the Twelve Apostles and London Arch.
Accommodation is found along the way in relaxed country beachside towns such as Apollo Bay and Port Fairy, and there are some beautiful beaches, fantastic National Parks, and some great surfing spots around there too, although the water is a bit chilly! Wildlife abounds and you can see fairy penguins along this coastline too.

If you do the Great Ocean Road in an easterly direction the first place you will come across is the Port Campbell National Park, which has some fabulous rock formations. The first formation you will see is London Arch, a natural arch formed through erosion, which used to be called London Bridge due to the close resemblance to the actual bridge, until it collapsed in 1990.

After Port Campbell you will pass Mutton Bird Island and The Blowhole, which is spectacular on a windy day. You will also come across Loch Ard Gorge where the Loch Ard clipper came to grief in 1878, only two people survived. One of the most spectacular sights is the Twelve Apostles, countless photographs have been shot here, possibly the best at sunrise or sunset. You can also get down to Gibson Beach here, but as with all beaches along this wild coastline please be careful, most are too dangerous to swim and you can get stranded when the tide comes in.

Driving further east you'll pass the Melba Gully State Park, before reaching Cape Otway and the Otway National Park, some spectacular lush rainforest grows here. The Pacific Highway heads inland from here through the beautiful rainforest of the national park at this point, but there are several tracks which take you down to coastal spots.

More worthwhile stops are at Blanket Bay which offers bush camping and walking trails, Elliott River picnic area, Maits Rest rainforest boardwalk offer rainforest treks, the Otway Lighthouse, Bimbi Park horse ranch and lots of pretty beaches, including beautiful Shelly Beach.

When the highway meets the coast again you will reach Apollo Bay, a pretty fishing town with some popular beaches. Further east is the popular coastal resort of Lorne and after that you pass through the Angahook-Lorne State Park before reaching the town of Aireys Inlet. There are a few choices in accommodation at Aireys Inlet and also some good beaches. Continue to travel east and arrive at the towns of Anglesea, more great beaches as well as good surf, and Torquay.

London Arch, one of the many striking features on the Great Ocean Road

The children's song "London Bridge has fallen down" became reality in january 1990 when the above rock formation then known as London Bridge suddenly collapsed. For many years day trippers had walked out along this natural bridge to the big rock at the end but after sitting there for possible millions of years the bridge spontaneously collapsed in January 1997 leaving two people stranded on the rock who had to wait several hours for a helicipter to arrive to ferry them back to the mainland. There is an urban myth that these two people were not actually a couple but both cheating on their repective partners and then got caught out getting their faces on national television but we do not know if this holds truth or not.
The rock formation was then renamed to London Arch.
Although the rock formations of the 12 Apostles are very large, they are quite soft and made up of a combination of limestone, sandstone and fossils, and the ocean waves erode them slowly at the rate of a centimetre a year.
The latest big crash happened in 2005, tourists that witnessed it said it was an awesome experience to see the 6000 year old 70 metre high rockformation topple over. Currently there are only eight Apostles, but this can change any time, as the ocean erodes rocky outcropped headlands new ones can be formed, and just as likely other Apostles can fall over, so the name 12 Apostles in never going to be accurate for long.

Buy this Art Print at AllPosters.com 

NEWSFLASH: On 26 September 2009 another Apostle fell over, so now we are down to only seven!

How to get to the Great Ocean Road

Unless you live in Victoria you will have to fly to the nearest airport Melbourne first.
If you are already in Australia then go to our page Cheap Domestic Flights in Australia for a good choice in cheap domestic airfares to Melbourne.

If you are still in your home country then you will need to get an international flight to Melbourne.

Airlines that fly straight in to Melbourne include Qantas, Singapore Air , KLM Royal Dutch Airlines and Air New Zealand , you can go to their websites and compare them to find the cheapest flights to Melbourne, or visit our Cheap Flights to Australia page for an overview of what is available in budget airfares to Melbourne.

ZUJI is an online travel agent with offices throughout the Asia Pacific region, offering you a choice of more than 400 airlines and 60,000 hotels, as well as car hire and travel insurance.

Feel more comfortable to book your airfares to Melbourne online with a travel business from your own country that you know and trust?

Then choose your home country here:

See the Great Ocean Road from the air !

Rent a car to see the Great Ocean Road

Driving your own car is one of the best ways to see the Great Oean Road and there is a wide choice of car rental companies where you can book your car or campervan online to be assured of a car on your arrival in Melbourne, and most offer one way rentals between major cities. Nothing beats the freedom of having your own car to explore and stop when and where you want.

Budget Car Hire needs little introduction, the name says it all: car hire at Budget Prices with a car hire company with an international reputation, and this sites makes it even easier to find yourself a cheap hire car, or anything else with wheels: trucks,buses, campervans, utes, four wheel drives etc.

Relax and let someone else do the driving!

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