Beginning of Great Ocean Road

This guide to the beginning of the Great Ocean Road traces its start in 1919, when returned soldiers with no jobs and no work but a shovel and gelignite were hired to carve a route along cliffs so steep horses could barely stand on them. It follows the roughly three thousand men who took on the job for better pay than their army wage, and the year surveyors spent mapping a path west from Torquay before any digging began. Behind you lies Torquay; ahead, the cliffs those surveyors once walked alone.