Twelve Apostles
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The Great Ocean Road starts at Torquay (about
100kms from Melbourne) and winds its way for 180
kms along the south-western coast of Victoria , Australia.
It is one of the most spectacular coastal drives in the world. It winds
its ways around ragged cliffs, windswept beaches, and tall buffs and passes
through lush mountain rainforest and towering eucalyptus.
The Great Ocean Road was started in 1918 and completed during the Great
Depression as a public works project to give returned soldiers and unemployed
people work.
Some of the sights along the way are:
- Bells Beach - a great place to go surfing and where the Bells
Surfing Classic is held each Easter.
- Shipwreck Coast - where the wrecks of over 80 ships lie on the
ocean floor. Many ships carrying immigrants to the gold fields of Victoria
floundered in the treacherous seas.
- Lorne - a popular sea side resort in Apollo Bay.
- Port Campbell National Park - One of the most photographed sections
of the road where shear golden limestone cliffs and rock formations withstand
the buffeting of fierce seas.
- Twelve Apostles -
(there are only 10 left!)
 London Bridge
(This is what it looked like before one of its spans collapsed)- Loch Ard Gorge - where in 1878 the clipper Loch Ard was driven into rocks during a storm with the loss of 52
lives.
- Otway National Park
- Port Fairy - a well preserved fishing village which was settled
by sealers and whalers back in the 1820s.
THE LOCH ARD DISASTER
 The 18 passengers and 36 crew on the iron-hulled clipper Loch Ard had
a party on the night of March 31, 1878, to celebrate their arrival in Melbourne
the next day after a three month voyage from England. But Captain Gibb stayed
on deck all night, worried by the thick mist that obscured the horizon and
Cape Otway light. At 4am the mist lifted and the lookout cried: "Breakers
ahead." Despite desperate attempts to turn the ship away -- and then
to hold it with its anchors -- it struck rocks. water flooded in, the masts
flailed against the high cliff face before crashing down and waves swept
across the decks, hampering attempts to get the lifeboats into the water.
Only two survived -- ship's apprentice Tom Pearce and Eva Carmichael, both
aged 18. Eva's parents and five siblings were lost. Tom drifted into the
gorge where he saw passenger Eva clinging to a mast -- he swam out, pulled
her into a cave and found some brandy in the wreckage to revive her. He
climbed out of the gorge and came upon two stockmen, and a rescue party
was organised. But only four bodies -- including Eva's mother and sister,
were able to be recovered from the treacherous seas and most of the ship's
valuable cargo was lost or looted. Tom Pearce became a national hero for
his rescue of Eva, who soon returned to Ireland.
A few days after the disaster a packing case washed up in the gorge.
It contained a life-sized Minton pottery peacock destined for the Melbourne Great Exhibition of 1880.
Excerpt from: NRMA Insight Autumn 1997 - Jillian McFarlane |
 I did some research and this particular anchor is from the great ship called The Marie Gabrielle. The ship was en route from China with a load of tea when she encountered strong winds and became shipwrecked on the reefs jutting out from the beach. The area has quite a few shipwreck sites along its coast with nothing left but the rusting anchor |
