Walking Australia’s Shipwreck Coast

Australia’s Great Ocean Road is a scenic drive that runs for 243km along Victoria’s southwest coast, between Torquay and Allansford. A 105km footpath called the Great Ocean Walk parallels part of the drive, between Apollo Bay and Glenample Homestead,

The trail runs through Great Otway National Park and the Otway Range, a low coastal range famous for its fern-gully forests.

Wildlife is abundant along this trek, both offshore and in the forested hinterlands. Koalas, wallabies, and echidnas, as well as many species of birds and reptiles are commonly seen in the forested areas, while fur seals, little penguins, and southern right and humpback whales are often spotted offshore.

This trek can be done all year but the best weather is usually found in the spring and fall months, between late September and late November or early March to mid-May.

Winter can be pleasant between storms but avoid the coastline during gales, as the winds and waves can be legendary along this stretch of beach.

The greatest challenge is the tides; in some locations at high tide, the waves completely cover the beaches and crash against the base of the cliffs.

You don’t want to get caught on the beaches during high tides, as drowning is a very real danger.

The route

This is a one-way trail, starting from Apollo Bay and running west to the Twelve Apostles.

The hike can be done in shorter sections or as an eight-day thru-hike, making use of the seven designated campsites spaced every 9.5km to 14.5km along the route.

Each campsite has between eight and 15 tent pads, as well as three-sided wind shelters, picnic tables and toilets. Some also provide water but you should plan to filter or treat all water on the trek.

1. The coastline between Cape Otway and Port Fairy is nicknamed the Shipwreck Coast. Over 600 ships met their end here on the rocks and reefs offshore.

More than 240 shipwrecks have been mapped and explored by divers, with a few washed up onto the beaches, where their rusting hulls appear and disappear with the tides and seasons.

The hulls of Mri Gbrill, wrecked in 1869, and the Fiji, which ran aground in 1891, can be seen on Johanna Beach and Wreck Beach respectively.

The rest have been lost to the sea, scattered by relentless waves and wind. In 1848, the Cape Otway Lightstation was lit for the first time; it guided ships around the cape until 1994, when it was decommissioned.

Today it’s the oldest surviving lighthouse in Australia. The lighthouse is open for tours, so check the operating hours if you’re craving some history on your hike.

2. West of Cape Otway lies Dinosaur Cove. The cliffs here are made up of fossil-rich rocks dating to 106 million years ago, during the early Cretaceous, when dinosaurs roamed what is now Australia.

Back then, Australia was newly separated from Antarctica and just beginning its northward journey to its current location.

In the 1980s and 1990s several species of dinosaurs were excavated from these cliffs, and the finds helped shed light on the evolutionary history of dinosaurs in Australia and the southern hemisphere.

3. While the more charismatic animals like koalas and whales get most of the attention along this trek, tiny gnat larvae are also worth watching for along wet stream banks.

These larvae are bioluminescent; they produce light-emitting enzymes that give off a bluish glow.

The light attracts the larvae’s tiny prey to its sticky spider-like threads. Glowworms are most often seen along the Great Ocean Walk in Angahook-Lorne State Park and Melba Gully Day Visitor Area.

4. One of the most famous viewpoints along the Great Ocean Drive is of the Twelve Apostles, a cluster of limestone sea stacks in Port Campbell National Park. The formations were named after the biblical Twelve Apostles but the name is a bit misleading, as there were never 12 sea stacks. In modern times, there were eight sea stacks but in July 2015, one of these collapsed into the waves, leaving seven. The stacks are formed from the Port Campbell limestone, dating to the mid to late Miocene, between 15 and five million years ago.

They were once sea cliffs, but wave action has eroded the cliffs into caves and then into arches that collapsed, leaving stacks of rocks as high as 160 feet (49m).