Great Ocean Road

Built by returned soldiers between 1919 and 1932, the Great Ocean Road was offered as a memorial to those who didn't come back — a road through country so beautiful it was felt to be worthy of the dedication. A century later it remains one of the great coastal drives on Earth, a winding 240 kilometres between Torquay and Allansford that alternates between surf beaches, limestone sea stacks and dripping temperate rainforest.

The Twelve Apostles are the headline — stack of golden limestone rising from the Southern Ocean, carved by swells that have been working the coastline for twenty million years. There are fewer than twelve now (several have collapsed into the sea during living memory), and watching sunset light hit the stacks from the clifftop walkway while the swell booms below is genuinely affecting. Arrive at dawn or in the last hour of light to experience them without the tour bus crowds.

Lorne and Apollo Bay are the two towns worth staying in — both have good camping, excellent beaches, and the Otway Ranges rising immediately behind them. The Otways are where the road's character changes: dense cool-temperate rainforest, ancient myrtle beech, streams running clear over rocks and the Triplet Falls glowing in green forest light. Koalas sleep in roadside gum trees along Great Ocean Road itself — keep your speed down and watch the branches.