The seaside town of Lorne on Louttit Bay in Victoria is perfectly positioned as a 'weekend away' destination for Melbourne residents, which has a lot to do with it being one of Victoria's most loved holiday destinations.
Lorne is blessed by being sandwiched on a narrow coastal plain between the Otway Range and Bass Strait. Its location not only places it right on Victoria's Surf Coast and a short drive from popular surf beaches such as Torquay, Bells Beach, Jan Juc, Aireys Inlet and Anglesea, but also just a few kilometres from the rainforests of the Otway Range, whose eucalypt-clad slopes literally reach to the sea around the town.
Lorne also marks the beginning of one of Australia's favourite drives, the Great Ocean Road. The several kilometres of fine coastline at Louttit Bay on which Lorne stands give travellers along the Great Ocean Road a real taste of things to come.
All these factors, not to mention that Lorne is just 140 km south-west of Melbourne, make Lorne the ideal destination for a holiday, a weekend away from the hustle and bustle of everyday life or simply a pleasant stopover on the way to the Shipwreck Coast.
Lorne has a resident population of around 1,000, but it swells to around 20,000 each New Year's Eve when the Falls Festival takes place. During the first weekend of January the town hosts the 1.2 km Pier to Pub swim (described in the Guinness Book of Records as "the largest organised ocean swim in the world" and currently capped at 4,000 competitors), the 8 km Mountain to Surf run, and the Lorne Surf Boat Race. Fair On The Foreshore occurs on the first weekend in November.
Lorne's popularity in summer can mean booked-out accommodation and traffic jams although it is fairly quiet at other times. Despite the crowds at peak season, Lorne still manages to retain a certain charm, owing in part to some fine old buildings. The sidewalk cafes, eating houses and boutiques, along with the ocean setting give the town something of a Mediterranean air.
Places of Interest
Natural features: Kalimna Falls, Phantom Falls; Shoak Falls; Straws Falls; Erskine Falls; Cora Lyn Cascades; Otway National Park; Mt. Defiance; Angahook-Lorne State Park; Cape Patton; Point Addis; Mount Sabine; Mount Gellibrand
Heritage features: Higher Elementary School (1879, 1908); St Cuthbert's Uniting Church (1892); There were eight shipwrecks off the coast. The 'WB Godfrey' is the most recognisable with a grave site, and artefacts visible in the rock shelf at low tide. Walking tracks behind Lorne follow old tram lines used by early timber mills.
History: Prior to European settlement, Lorne was part of the traditional lands of the Gadubanud or King Parrot people of the Cape Otway coast. Louttit Bay is named after Captain Louttit, who sought shelter there in 1841 while supervising the retrieval of cargo from a nearby shipwreck. The coast was surveyed five years later in 1846. The first European settler was William Lindsay, a timber-cutter who began felling the area in 1849. The first telegraph arrived in 1859. Subdivision began in 1869 and in 1871 the town was named after the Marquis of Lorne from Argyleshire in Scotland on the occasion of his marriage to Princess Louise, one of Queen Victoria's daughters. The Post Office opened on 29 April 1874.
By 1922 the Great Ocean Road was extended to Lorne, making the town much more accessible. The first passenger service to Geelong was established in 1924 and guesthouses began to appear after 1930. The local fishing industry expanded significantly in the 1930s and 1940s. The Ash Wednesday bushfires swept through the area in 1983, destroying 76 houses.
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