Swaggie
Moderator
The Great Ocean Road is one of Australia’s most scenic drives. Winding its way along 243 kilometres of Victoria’s rugged south-west coast, it attracts millions of visitors each year.
But what many do not realise is that the road was built as a permanent memorial to those who died during the First World War.
Carved from wild and windswept cliffs overlooking the Southern Ocean, the Great Ocean road was built by 3,000 returned servicemen fresh from the trenches of the Western Front in memory of their fallen comrades.
“It was just an idea that was floated by a couple of men,” said Dr Meleah Hampton, an historian at the Australian War Memorial.
At the time of the First World War, the remote south-west coast of Victoria was accessible only by sea or rough tracks through dense bush.
“They had long wanted a road to connect all of these coastal towns in southern Victoria so they floated it as an idea for using the manpower of these returned servicemen, and then they decided: ‘If we are going to do it, let’s make it a memorial.’
“It was a huge endeavour.”
On 18 March 1922, the first section of the road, from Eastern View (where the ANZAC soldier sculpture can be viewed today) to Lorne, was officially opened with due pomp and ceremony.
It would be another ten years before the section from Lorne to Apollo Bay was finished, officially marking its completion. The road was officially opened in November 1932 with Victoria’s Lieutenant-Governor Sir William Irvine holding a ceremony near Lorne’s Grand Pacific Hotel.
Learn more here: http://ow.ly/uR3s50yMt74
Photo: Men working on the construction of the Great Ocean Road. Courtesy: http://ow.ly/ZWkt50yMt75
But what many do not realise is that the road was built as a permanent memorial to those who died during the First World War.
Carved from wild and windswept cliffs overlooking the Southern Ocean, the Great Ocean road was built by 3,000 returned servicemen fresh from the trenches of the Western Front in memory of their fallen comrades.
“It was just an idea that was floated by a couple of men,” said Dr Meleah Hampton, an historian at the Australian War Memorial.
At the time of the First World War, the remote south-west coast of Victoria was accessible only by sea or rough tracks through dense bush.
“They had long wanted a road to connect all of these coastal towns in southern Victoria so they floated it as an idea for using the manpower of these returned servicemen, and then they decided: ‘If we are going to do it, let’s make it a memorial.’
“It was a huge endeavour.”
On 18 March 1922, the first section of the road, from Eastern View (where the ANZAC soldier sculpture can be viewed today) to Lorne, was officially opened with due pomp and ceremony.
It would be another ten years before the section from Lorne to Apollo Bay was finished, officially marking its completion. The road was officially opened in November 1932 with Victoria’s Lieutenant-Governor Sir William Irvine holding a ceremony near Lorne’s Grand Pacific Hotel.
Learn more here: http://ow.ly/uR3s50yMt74
Photo: Men working on the construction of the Great Ocean Road. Courtesy: http://ow.ly/ZWkt50yMt75