Airey's Inlet

introduction

~30min from Geelong, Torquay or Lorne
Fairhaven surf beach
Split Point lighthouse c1891
lovely beaches facing east and south
Eagle Rock
17 hectare Eagle Rock marine sanctuary surrounds Split Point extending 300m offshore
bush walks through dry ironbark forests:
- Distillery Creek
- Mogg's Creek picnic ground
Airey's Inlet Hotel
official website
horse riding:
- Blazing Saddles Horse riding:
  - bush ride; beach ride at low tide only;
  - ph: 03 5289 7322 or A/H 5289 7149 or 0418 528 647
gliding: Gliding High
canoeing - G.O.R.A.T.S. Adventure ph: 03 5289 6841 - also has downhill mountain bike hire/tours
accommodation:
- Split Point Cottages ph: 5289 6566 - 2BR, 300mm thick rammed earth walls, tennis court, outdoor spa
- New Beginnings cottage ph: 5289 6550 - bush setting; dbl or twin share; short walk to beach;
- Airey's Inlet Getaway 2-3BR villas with spa, OFP; walk to beach, lighthouse, shops; pool; spa; tennis; BBQ
- Bambra Countrywide Cottages rural farm setting, good for pets;

history

geologic:
- formed from volcanic eruptions 24-29 million years ago which then became covered in sedimentary rock deposited from the much higher sea levels.
- when the sea levels fell, this sedimentary rock gradually eroded leaving the current cliff faces.
- bushfires are said to have impacted the region every 20 years or so, the worst in 1851 and 1983.
pre-history: Aboriginal tribe, Wauthauring lived in the region from Lorne to Geelong and relied upon Airey's Inlet for fresh water from a well, eels, shellfish, wild berries and echidnas.
1803: escaped convict, William Buckley finds refuge in a cave in Airey's Inlet for 3weeks before becoming part of an Aboriginal tribe, 32 years later, he re-joined white civilisation
1834: Henty brothers settle in Portland
1835: sheep squatters landing in Geelong, come to Victoria to illegally take up pastoral runs
1835: William Roadknight and his son Thomas, settle in Victoria taking up properties in Winchelsea, then in 1838, Yan Yan Gurt (Bambra), and River Station in 1840, and in Aire River and Cape Otway in 1849/1850; Thomas cut the track through to Cape Otway over a period of 6 months. In the 1860's he paid the leasehold for Airey Run west of the Airey's Inlet creek.
1839: Lt John Cole Moore Airey takes up a pastoral run between Airey's Inlet and Point Roadknight he registered as Anglohawk Run
1840: sheep squatters who had taken up land were formally recognized and for an annual fee could continue tpo graze the land.
1843: 1st survey of this coast and identifies 3 coastal pastoral runs: Angahook, Aireys Inlet and Loutit Bay
1846: William Urquart's land survey
1848: Govt introduces Pre-emptive Right on registered runs - the right to buy a square mile (640 acres) for one pound per acre.
1848: John Herd settles area west of Airey's Inlet, T.R. Carter settles area east of Airey's inlet
1851: Black Thursday fires destroy all of Carter's improvements
1852: Carter decides to cut his losses and sell. Thomas Pearse (butcher from Geelong) and his apprentice, Robert McConachy purchase 640 acres freehold. and the Angahook leasehold from Carter.
- Angahook Station had the right to graze 2560 acres on the east side of the Painkalac Creek, and the right to buy a square mile (640 acres) for one pound per acre - they chose to buy the creek frontage as it was the most fertile and the most heavily timbered, and had the freshwater swamp (now the Allen Noble Sanctuary) as a permanent water supply.
1859: Thomas Austin (of Winchelsea) brings rabbits to Australia and by 1870, Aireys is swarming with them adversely impacting grazing feed
1861: Robert McConachy marries Sarah Pearse, daughter of Thomas and Martha Pearse, and they live in the bark hut until moving to the stone house when Martha Pearse died. They had 15 children, but were very isolated. They grew oats for the horses and wheat for flour.
1862: Thomas Pearse dies from hepatitis and is buried on the cliff top near the lighthouse. Angahook homestead is completed.
1868: land survey results is 21 property sales between Anglesea and Airey;s Inlet
1869: 1st passenger coach crossing the ranges from Geelong.
1870: Martha Pearse dies and estate sold off; Robert McConachy and wife Sarah move to Mirnee.
1870: the rabbit invasion commences in Aireys Inlet conributing to McConachy's decision to sell his 640 acre Angahook farm to John Rout Hopkins
1872: Benjamin Berthon granted a licence for allotment 15 of 284+ acres at Aireys (Wybellenna).
1879: Jonas Hollingworth selects 82 acres at Spout Creek and names it Eastern View
1883: Luggs establish themselves on lot 19 134+ acres at Aireys Inlet
1883: as Geelong was running out of firewood, coal and gravel supplies, a steam train line was built from Moriac to Wensleydale, this opened in 1890. This line was not economic and was closed in 1948, and dismantled in 1953.
1887: John Rout Hopkins subdivides 1st six sections of Eaglehawk Estate, opening up the Painkalac valley to the public
1889: the Anderson family move from Bambra to Aireys Inlet
- Wesley Anderson was a 19 yr old Negro American who arrived in Sydney in 1836 and married Sarah Jane Clarke in 1840. He joined the gold rushes in Ballarat and Bendigo in the 1850's without success and in the late 1850's moved his family via bullock dray to Lorne (lowering the dray and each bullock down the cliff at Devil's Corner onto the the beach). He moved his family to Wombete where he discovered coal in 1857, but died in 1859. His son, John Anderson and his wife Mary owned 297 acres at Yan Yan Gurt (Bambra), and in 1889, they moved to Airey's Inlet establishing the Mountain House guest house.
1890: John Rout Hopkins sells Angahook homestead on 8 acres to W&W McMullen and G.C. Noble
1890: Winchelsea Council approves tender to construct a road from Wensleydale Station to Airey's Inlet
1890: W&J Hasty purchase land and establishes a boarding house, coach service, store and post office in Bambra Road
1891: Henry Buckhurst selects lot 20a of 309 acres between Urquharts Bluff and Sunnymead Road and builds a cottage and orchard.
1891: R. Anderson (who built the lighthouse complex) builds Kontiki in Bambra Rd, one of the 1st cottages in Airey's Inlet
1891: construction of Split Point Lighthouse commences with telephone connection commencing in 1892
1893: Airey's Inlet school opens
1894: Blake constructs the Grand Hotel in Bambra Road in anticipation of tourists from the new road but they did not come, and the hotel burnt down in 1898
1894: Winchelsea Council clear a route from Mt Misery to Airey's Inlet via Hutt Gully and Sunnymead Road
1894: William Loud selects lot 19b of 28+ acres in the hill between Gilbert St and Distillery Creek Road
1900: Hollingworth family vacate Eastern View.
1900: William Reid builds The Neukt at Mogg's Creek
1900: Jack Anderson builds Mountain House
1904: Albert Anderson, expecting traffic to come from Gilbert St instead of Bambra Road, moves Battey's Bambra Rd cottage to the current site of the Airey's Inlet Hotel, and applies for a Colonial Wine Licence.
1906 George Noble (son-in-law of previous owner, William McMullen) acquires Angahook
1909: Charles Lane buys Sunnymead
1911: Albert Anderson buys Hasty's boarding house on Bambra Rd and moves it with the store, P.O businness and coach service to his hotel site.
1913: Charles Lane drives his car through Airey's Inlet on his way to his property at Sunnymead
1919: lighthouse cottages became vacnt when the government converted the lighthouse to automatic control, no longer needing to be manned
1922/24: Charles Lane constructs and opens his new coastal road via Sunnymead through to Airey's Inlet and includes a toll gate.
1923: auction of Eastern View Estate “the riviera of the south” adjacent to all the beauty spots (not sure if these are there today!):
- Louise Falls
- Kelsall's Rock
- McCormick's Canyon
- Herschell's Fernery
1924: Alfred Farthing establishes hotel at Eastern View which he ran until 1957.
1930: Anglican Church built
1931: Robert Cowan builds Fairhaven which he opened as a guest house in 1936
1932: bridge over the Aireys River opened in conjunction with the new road from Airey's Inlet to Lorne.
1934: Allen Noble (son of the owner, George Noble) acquires Angahook
1935: Lightkeeper cottages and 13 allotments sold.
1936: The Great Ocean Road toll gate removed.
1936: Eastern View golf links opened, but closed in 1939
1936: electricity makes it to Airey's Inlet
1939: Anglesea and Airey's Inlet spared from the 1939 bush fires perhaps courtesy of regular burn off practices on the Wensleydale grazing land north of this region by the Holloway family and others who regularly burnt off grazing land to promote new growth.
1948: 1st CFA fire brigade
1954: Hutt Gully culvert washed away in heavy rains cutting off the Great Ocean Road
1955: Albert Anderson auctions off 62 acres of river flats to Arthur Gladman of Winchelsea.
1957: Eastern View Hotel closes
1966: singer Dame Joan Hammond builds Jumbunna
1975: Claire Roberts (daughter of the owner, Allen Noble) acquires Angahook
1980: Clarkes sell Eastern View farm after 100 years in the family
1983: Ash Wednesday bushfires devastates Airey's Inlet, burning down most of the historic buildings.
1993: lighthouse stables converted into a tea room and gallery
2004: Angahook homestead rebuilt after the Ash Wednesday fires