Mariners and Mailboxes Part 1

An illustrated guide to the Shipwreck Coast

I’ve been traversing the west coast of Victoria threaded by the 240km Great Ocean Road on and off for more than half a century, since we stayed in a motel at Port Campbell for a couple of days in November 1974.

With my brother Jaz at Loch Ard Gorge - we called them anoraks, it being uncivilised to call them parkas

If I did not despise the vacuous expression, it would be my happy place - the perfect leavening of natural grandeur with historic density, always with more to see and do. Did I tell you I’ve a fascination with shipwrecks? This year is the centenary of Jack Loney, who was the first author I ever visited in his natural habitat - the study in Portarlington from which, before an after his retirement as a schoolmaster, he produced a ceaseless flow of book and pamphlets, of which he kindly signed my selection.

So clutching a copy of one of Jack’s classics……

….we headed off for a few days away from cricket and even music, where this….

…did not portend The Residents, nor this reference Jeffrey Lee Pierce.

And the landscape can change from this….

…to this…

…to this….

…and back to this in half an hour. Devotees of anchors are also well catered for.

This is from the Eric the Red, a handsome clipper wrecked on the reef at Cape Otway, having strayed too close to shore to take advantage of the Lighthouse in the background. Woops! It was bearing a cargo bound for Melbourne’s International Exhibition including this….

….which ended up in the Cape Otway Telegraph Station. So it’s an ill wind, eh? Also at the station, a signal flag from the SS Great Britain….

….which, as any fule kno, conveyed not only HH Stephenson’s English team to Australia in 1861-2 but George Parr’s team of 1863-4 too - there’s always a cricket connection, isn’t there?

But did I mention I never pass up a visit to a lighthouse? Cape Otway was Australia’s second and is the oldest, erected in the year WG Grace was born (and The Communist Manifesto published)….

…while its miraculous cadioptric Fresnal lens….

…was despatched from Chance Brothers during the year in which Turner and Ferris bowled England out for 53 and 62 at Lord’s.

If you’ve never had breakfast on a perfect still morning with a lighthouse in background, we can recommend it.

Also the cafe, for its delightful flourishes….

….and patriotic dairy produce.

Sound the segue claxon, Pete! The Twelve Apostles are, of course, still the money shot of every trip….

…although you’ll have to fight to get it….

….and this designer hellscape will shortly complete its ruination.

But Loch Ard Gorge still inspires awe and reverence.

One stares and stares at the boiling seas….

….and the freakish natural sculpture of The Razorback.

….and the odds against the survival of star-crossed Tom Pearce and Eva Carmichael seem astronomical considering modern perspectives on peril…..

Substack is flashing red, so I’ll post Part 2 separately.