Great Ocean Road
— — the road the soldiers built for the men who didn't come back.
Not only on a wall.
“The Great Ocean Road runs 243 kilometres along Victoria's southwest coast, from Torquay near Geelong out to Allansford near Warrnambool. Returned soldiers built it by hand between 1919 and 1932 as a memorial to the men who didn't come home from the First World War. It is the largest war memorial in the world. The road climbs over the Otway rainforest, drops back down to the Shipwreck Coast, and threads past the Twelve Apostles where the limestone stacks stand out in the Southern Ocean.
Great Ocean Road, on ceramic.
Each tile is finished by hand in our Knoxville studio. Artwork is slowly infused into the ceramic surface under high heat and pressure, and rests beneath a thin glossy finish. The colour lives in the surface, not on top of it.
Pick any four 4-inch tiles — National Parks you've been to, a Smokies set, the four seasons of one place. $ for a set of , cork-backed, ready to live on the table.
The place, in three passes.
The Great Ocean Road is a 243-kilometre coastal road in southwest Victoria, Australia, running from Torquay in the east to Allansford near Warrnambool in the west. It was built by about 3,000 returned First World War servicemen between 1919 and 1932 and is recognised as the largest war memorial in the world. The road is also Australian National Heritage listed. It threads three distinct coastal sections: the surf coast around Torquay and Bells Beach, the Otway rainforest behind Apollo Bay, and the Shipwreck Coast past Port Campbell.
The most photographed stretch is in Port Campbell National Park, where the Twelve Apostles rise as limestone sea stacks up to 45 metres tall off the Shipwreck Coast. Despite the name there were never twelve; eight stood when the site was popularly named and seven remain after the collapse of one in July 2005. A few kilometres west, Loch Ard Gorge marks the 1878 wreck of the clipper Loch Ard, whose two teenage survivors washed into the small beach. The stone is soft Miocene limestone, eroding back at about two centimetres a year.
Driven east to west from Melbourne, the standard route runs Torquay, Lorne, Apollo Bay, the Otways, Port Campbell, and on to Warrnambool. Most travellers cover it in two or three days; the full 243 kilometres can be driven in about four and a half hours without stops, but the road was not built for speed. Bells Beach near Torquay has hosted the Rip Curl Pro surfing competition since 1973. Memorial archways at Eastern View mark the road as a permanent war memorial; the speed limit through the cliff sections is 80 kilometres per hour.