Great Ocean Road

What is the Great Ocean Road?
The Great Ocean Road is a scenic coastal highway stretching roughly two hundred and forty-three kilometres along the southeastern coast of Australia, running from Torquay to Allansford near Warrnambool in the state of Victoria. Built between 1919 and 1932, it is widely regarded as the world's largest war memorial, constructed specifically to honour Australian servicemen killed during the First World War. Today it ranks among the most celebrated scenic drives on earth, winding past dramatic cliffs, dense forest, and some of Australia's most photographed coastal rock formations.

Why was it built?
The road's origins lay in the practical problem of unemployment facing Australian soldiers returning from the First World War, many of whom found few opportunities waiting for them at home. William Calder, chairman of Victoria's Country Roads Board, proposed using returned servicemen to construct roads through the sparsely populated and largely inaccessible southwestern coast, framing his original proposal primarily around employment and regional access rather than commemoration. As the project developed under the Great Ocean Road Trust, it increasingly took on clear symbolic weight as well, coming to be conceived as a living memorial to the servicemen who had not returned at all.

Who championed the project?
Geelong's mayor, Alderman Howard Hitchcock, took Calder's proposal and drove it toward reality, forming the Great Ocean Road Trust to raise the substantial funds the project would require. Hitchcock contributed a significant sum from his own pocket and secured further capital through private subscription and borrowing, recognising both the road's value as a war memorial and its considerable potential to attract tourists to the region. His energetic promotion of the project proved essential to transforming Calder's practical proposal into an undertaking of genuinely national significance.

How was it actually constructed?
Construction officially began in September 1919, when Victoria's Premier detonated an explosive charge near Lorne to mark the project's start, and roughly three thousand returned servicemen worked on the road over the following thirteen years. The work relied almost entirely on manual labour, using picks, shovels, wheelbarrows, and explosives rather than the heavy machinery that would make such projects far quicker in later decades. Progress across the difficult, densely forested coastal terrain averaged only about three kilometres a month, reflecting just how physically demanding the undertaking truly was.

How dangerous was the work?
Workers faced genuinely hazardous conditions throughout construction, particularly along the steep coastal cliffs that made up the road's most difficult sections, where blasting and rockfalls posed constant risks. Accounts differ on the precise human cost of this dangerous work, with some sources describing the project as remarkably free of serious accidents and others recording that several workers lost their lives during construction. Whatever the exact toll, the physical risks the workers accepted have become an inseparable part of how the road's construction is remembered today.

How did the road open in stages?
The road was not completed all at once but opened progressively as different sections were finished, with the first stretch between Eastern View and Lorne opening to celebration in March 1922 before being temporarily closed again for further work later that year. Construction then continued westward in stages over the following decade, with the final section connecting Lorne to Apollo Bay completed in November 1932. Victoria's Lieutenant Governor, Sir William Irvine, formally opened the completed road near Lorne that same month, marking the end of thirteen years of construction.

How was construction financed, and what happened to the tolls?
The Great Ocean Road Trust funded much of the project through private subscription and loans, planning from the outset to recoup this investment by charging motorists a toll to use the road once it opened. Drivers and passengers paid separate fees at a toll gate near Eastern View, generating revenue that was gradually used to pay down the project's outstanding debt over the following years. Once the debt was fully repaid, the Trust formally handed the road over to the Victorian state government as a gift in October 1936, and the tolls were permanently abolished.

What landmarks does the road pass?
The road passes through a string of coastal towns including Lorne, Apollo Bay, and Port Campbell, alongside renowned surfing locations such as Bells Beach and dramatic natural features including Loch Ard Gorge. Its most famous landmarks are the Twelve Apostles, a series of limestone stacks rising from the Southern Ocean within Port Campbell National Park, shaped over millions of years by relentless wave erosion. These formations, along with the broader coastal scenery the road was specifically designed to showcase, remain the primary draw for the millions of visitors who travel the route each year.

What happened to the Twelve Apostles' name and numbers?
The limestone stacks now known as the Twelve Apostles were originally referred to by the far less flattering name Sow and Piglets, before being rebranded with their current, more evocative title to better appeal to tourists. Despite the name, the formation never actually consisted of exactly twelve distinct stacks, and ongoing coastal erosion has continued to reduce their number over time, including one dramatic collapse witnessed by tourists in 2005. Only a handful of stacks remain clearly visible from the main viewing platform today, a visible reminder that the same forces that created them continue to wear them away.

How is it recognized today?
The Great Ocean Road was added to the Australian National Heritage List in 2011, formally recognising both its engineering achievement and its enduring significance as a memorial to those who built it. Surveys of Australian tourism experiences have repeatedly ranked it among the country's most celebrated attractions, and it remains one of the most visited scenic drives anywhere in the world. Its dual identity as both a practical transport route and a solemn memorial continues to shape how visitors experience the journey along its length.

Why does it deserve a card?
The Great Ocean Road stands as one of history's most unusual war memorials, an entire coastal highway carved out of cliffside wilderness by the very men who had survived the war it commemorates. Built with picks, shovels, and explosives rather than modern machinery, it demanded years of gruelling labour from workers who had already endured the trenches of the First World War. Few memorials anywhere in the world combine genuine engineering achievement, natural beauty, and heroic purpose as completely as this single, sweeping stretch of Australian coastline.

The Great Ocean Road is part of Volume III

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