Apollo Bay and the west Otway Region

introduction

75min (90km) to the 12 Apostles
60min (71km) to Colac
150min (112km) to Geelong via coast or 120min (146km) via Colac
tides are 28min before Port Phillip Heads times
Otway National Park - several small camping areas - most need to bring drinking water & firewood, no litter;
Great Ocean Walk:
- 104km walk passes through Otway & Port Campbell National Parks taking 8 days and 7 nights but can be experienced in shorter walks.
Marriners Lookout - 30min return walk gives panoramic views
Maits Rest 30min loop rainforest walk - perhaps the best in the region.
Blanket Bay - isolated rocky beach
Cape Otway lighthouse - southern-most point of western Victoria - self-guided tours from 9am - check entry fee
The Gable lookout - views to Moonlight Head
Red Rock lookout - Victoria's youngest volcano - last erupted 6,000yrs ago - lookout is 230m above sea level and gives views across volcanic plains, craters, cones & lakes.
Apollo Bay Music Festival - Mar or April
Apollo Bay Airfield - 12 Apostles air tours ph: 5237 7370
Bimbi Park horseriding
in winter to spring, Southern Right Whales come to the area mainly to breed, to give birth their calves
see also:
- visit Apollo Bay website
rental accommodation:
- Apollo Bay Real Estate
B&B:
- Claerwen Retreat ph: 5237 7064 - luxury country house or 3BR cottages surrounded by 130 acres park, farm, rainforest; tennis court; pool; hot spa; children by arrangement;
- see http://www.greatoceanroad.org/Town_Search.aspx?bustypeid=1&townid=35&homepageid=4 for more
holiday parks:
- Marengo Park - beach side, just south of Apollo Bay
- Pisces Holiday Park - just north of Apollo Bay
- Kooringal Apollo Bay Holiday Park - 100m from Great Ocean Rd
for lots of guests:
- Seacroft - previously a monastery, very affordable but shared bathrooms and kitchen for up to 32 people plus optional campers

a brief history

the Gadubanud or Katabanut known to the Europeans as the King Parrot People are the traditional owners of the Apollo Bay area and much of the Otways
1790: sealers operated in Bass Strait
1800: Apollo Bay coast sighted by Lt Grant on the Lady Nelson
1830's?? Henty Brothers set up a whaling station at Pt Bunbury where the current golf course lies
1836: Gellibrand and Hesse are the first white men to penetrate the Otway Ranges. They disappear without trace the following year while still in the Otways.
1845: Apollo Bay named by Capt Loutitt after he sheltered here in his vessel Apollo on a voyage from Melbourne to Port Fairy
1845: George Smythe was engaged to survey the coast down to Cape Otway
1845: Superintendent Charles La Trobe (later Governor) succeeds on his 3rd attempt to reach Cape Otway to determine a site for a lighthouse
1845: William and Thomas Roadknight establish an overland route from Birregurra to Cape Otway which is just 1.2m wide
1848: Cape Otway lighthouse completed
1849: trees felled and timber floated out to boats in the bay
1851: Black Thursday bush fires on 6th Feb destroyed the timber cutters settlement on the bay
1850's: Victoria's gold rush brings many ships from England around Cape Otway and several were wrecked in the treacherous seas of the Shipwreck Coast west of Cape Otway including:
- Marie (1851), Sacramento (1853), Schomberg (1856), and later, Loch Ard (1878), Joseph H. Scammell (May 1891), and Fiji (September 1891)
1852: Sawmill built on Clynes Creek (now Cawoods Creek) and timber jetty built at Pt Bunbury
1853: the Apollo Bay Company builds a sawmill at junction of Barham Rivers and a tramway to the jetty
1853: town surveyed by Skene and named as Middleton
1854: the brigantine Anna of 140 tons was wrecked while loading in Apollo Bay; the jetty was damaged by storms and a new 300' jetty was built on Pt Bunbury
1859: telegraph office opens at nearby Cape Otway lighthouse
1864: John Cawood establishes a farm on river flats opposite the recreation ground
1868: 1st land titles issued
1877: town named as Krambruk with surveyed land is thrown open for selection resulting in 30 township and half-acre lots being sold, and soon infrastructure building includes a school, churches, post office and a pub
1886: telegraph services begin at the Post Office
1896: plans approved for building of a bridge across Skene's Creek
1898: town renamed Apollo Bay
1900: building began on a spectacular railway line that ran between Beech Forest and Colac and trains ran until 1962 serving the timber industry and Apollo Bay - this line is now a popular downhill walking trail
1900's: 3 means of communication with the rest of the world:
- a weekly boat service
- horse coach to Forrest and then the railway line
- the telegraph
1900: 1st sawmill established in nearby Lavers Hill stimulating development of that township
1927: first road access
1932: the coastal steamer Casino, was hit by a freak wave as it tried to berth at the town’s jetty, sinking killing 10 people. The anchor of the vessel is now an important monument located outside the post office
1932: the completion of the Great Ocean Road finally opens up access to Apollo Bay by road from Melbourne allowing it to become an important fishing village (now fresh fish could be delivered to Melbourne) and tourist town
1936: establishment of telecommunications station with installation of submarine telegraph and telephone cable to Tasmania
1939-42: German raider ships plant mines and sink ships in the Cape Otway region during Second World War, including the first American vessel sunk during World War II, the SS City of Rayville
1942: the Americans build a radar bunker at Cape Otway
1950's: timber cutters again arrive and again they float timber out to ships in the bay
1989: the Old Cable Station opens as the Apollo Bay Museum
2006: the Great Ocean Walk officially opens - a 104km walking trail from Apollo Bay to Glenample with plans to extend it from Moonlight Head to the Twelve Apostles Visitors' Centre in 2010
2011: the popular Marriners Falls walk is closed permanently due to storm damage and risk of unstable trees falling on walkers following an incident in 2008 when trees fell on a family causing serious injury to the parents