May Squares #20 Loch Ard Gorge

Postcards from The Great Ocean Road ~ Joining Becky for May Squares, featuring scenes along Victoria’s  iconic Great Ocean Road.

#SquaresRenew ~ moving forward, reconstructing, renewing or burgeoning

The heritage listed Great Ocean Road follows the coast of south-eastern Victoria from Torquay to Allansford for 241 kilometres, past beautiful sandy beaches and bays, through lush rainforests and over rugged limestone cliffs. Built by soldiers returned from World War One between 1919 and 1932, and dedicated to those who paid the ultimate sacrifice, the road is the world’s largest war memorial. Construction of the road provided employment for more than 3,000 returned servicemen, giving them purpose and providing much needed rehabilitation after the horrors of war. The Great Ocean Road linked towns along the coast previously only accessed by sea or tracks through the bush and created a route now acknowledged as one of the most scenic tourist drives in the world. 

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Loch Ard Gorge, Port Campbell National Park

The stretch of Victorian coast between Cape Otway and Port Fairy is known as the Shipwreck Coast for a very good reason. 638 ships have been lost in an area the 18th century explorer and navigator Captain Matthew Flinders described as a “fearful section of coastline”.

Loch Ard Gorge is named for the most famous shipwreck on the coast. On the night of 1st June 1878 thick fog concealed the cliffs along the coast, confusing the captain of the Loch Ard who thought the ship was much further out to sea. When the ship hit a reef off Mutton Bird Island 52 of the 54 people on board perished; apprentice sailor Tom Pearce and passenger Eva Carmichael, both aged 18, were the only survivors.

Tom was washed into the gorge and onto the beach. Later he heard Eva’s cries for help and swam out to rescue her. It took him an hour in the rough seas to bring her to safety. When daylight came, he climbed out of the gorge to seek help from local farmer Hugh Gibson, the same man who built Gibson Steps. 

Even on a calm day the ocean rushes in through the narrow gap between the heads and huge waves crash on to the cliffs.  On a clear sunny afternoon, the terror Tom and Eva must have felt that foggy night is unimaginable.