Originally called the Sow and Pigs, some sassy marketing peeps thought the 12 Apostles would be a catchier tourism moniker, even though you could only see nine at the time. To date, there are only seven Apostles visible from viewing areas after two fell dramatically into the sea, however there are as many as thirty limestone stacks along the Shipwreck coastline.
While the Apostles are mind-bogglingly (yep that’s a word!) beautiful, the 130km’s of coastline from Cape Otway to Port Fairy has a nasty past to its name. There are approximately 638 (pretty precise for approximate, eh?) known shipwrecks along Victoria’s coastline, with only around 240 having been discovered. The most famous of which – the Loch Ard.
The Loch Ard was enroute from Great Britain to Australia in March 1878 with a total of 54 crew and passengers. On 1 June, she was approaching Melbourne and encountered heavy fog (cue spooky fog music.) No sign of the Cape Otway lighthouse due to inclement weather, and no real idea of the ships position due to bad conditions on previous days, when the fog lifted around 4am the Loch Ard was surfing the breakers into the cliffs!
There were only two 18-year-old survivors, Eva an Irish girl, and Thomas, a young Australian apprentice. Their survival efforts entailed a night spent together on the beach, and religious zealots of the time (and budding romantics) pondered the benefits of betrothal so that Eva could avoid the walk of shame. Alas it was not to be. Eva scarpered back to Ireland to marry and Tom became a ship’s captain, eventually cashing his chips at 49, after surviving 3 more shipwrecks (dude didn’t listen to the universe!)
While I am seriously digressing from the splendours of the 12 Apostles, part of the experience is the small, quaint, historic Loch Ard cemetery (hands up who likes tombstone tourism? Guity.) At least four of the victims are interred here and a brass plaque commemorates others who perished.
You just can’t do the Apostles in a day trip! There’s way too much to see, trails to walk, pics to take, tiny towns to discover. We stayed at the 12 Apostles Motel & Country Retreat, a 3-star property, just 1.5km’s down an unsealed road inland from the Apostles Visitor Information Centre.
While I give it 5 stars for location, the accommodation did give me Fawlty Towers vibes – the receptionist wore high vis (huh?), a sign in our room said “No cooking in the kettle” (Wait…what…) and the only neighbour within cooee of the motel was flying a Sovereign Citizen flag. Damn. We were caught up in the lunatic fringe! The room décor was a mashup of Viking Nordic, Op shop chic, with a whiff of the 80’s thrown in for good measure.
Sorry, what was I talking about? Oh yeah, the Apostles. There are no words to describe how breath-taking this part of the world is, so just go!
