June 22–24, 2023 After flying from Sydney to Avalon, we spent three days driving the Great Ocean Road , Victoria's famous southwestern coastal route. According to our guidebook: It was built between 1919 and 1932 as a scenic road to equal California’s Pacific Coast Highway – and it certainly lives up to its reputation. The road was to be both a memorial to the soldiers who died in World War I and an employment scheme for those who returned. More than three thousand ex-servicemen laboured with picks and shovels, carving the road along Australia’s most rugged and densely forested coastline; the task was speeded up with the help of the jobless during the Great Depression. The road hugs the coastline between Torquay and Apollo Bay and passes through the popular holiday towns of Anglesea and Lorne, set below the Otway Ranges. From Apollo Bay it heads inland, through the towering forests of Great Otway National Park, before rejoining the coast at Princetown to wind along the shore for th...
