Port Fairy to Torquay

February 25, 2016

The first three photos below are from the Great Ocean Road on our way to Port Fairy.  We took numerous photos along this stretch of road and loved the views.  It was a rainy and cloudy day so we didn't get crystal clear pictures, but there are thousands of them on the internet.

 Port Fairy was our last stop driving down the coast since we were running out of time.  We originally wanted to take 7 days and drive to Adelaide, but circumstances prevented us from making the full trip.

It was raining as we entered Port Fairy and couldn't get a real good picture of the welcome sign.  The town was a whaling station in the 1820s and it was named after a whaling ship named The Fairy.  Later it was changed to Belfast and then reverted back to Port Fairy.  They have a large fishing fleet there in the harbor and tourism is a major economic factor for the town of 2,600.

 The Goble Mill House embodies all that is attractive about the town. Sited on the banks of the Moyne River, with a jetty at the end of a path through a pretty garden, the former flour mill became a cheese-and-butter factory after World War I but was abandoned in 1939. It has now been restored as a comfortable bed-and-breakfast place and is one of 50 local properties listed by the National Trust, including churches, public buildings and whaler's cottages.

A number of small cottages are in the town and the one below is representative of them.  The walls are made out of stone.  This one looks like it has been standing a long time.

 The Port Fairy Railway Goods Shed, located in the Railway Reserve between Regent Street and Bank Street, Port Fairy, was constructed in 1890 during construction of the Warrnambool to Port Fairy railway. It is aligned at an angle reflecting the original line of the tracks. It complemented the Railway Station, demolished after the closure of the line in the 1970s when the entire railway infrastructure was also removed. The goods shed is an example of a standard 20ft wide Victorian Railways late nineteenth century design designated N20, built of heavy timber framing, clad with unpainted corrugated iron on the walls. The original corrugated iron roof and stormwater drainage system was been replaced in the 1960s by unpainted corrugated asbestos cement sheets and plumbing. Timber trims and details are painted. Six large timber sliding doors along each side of the building provided easy access for loading and unloading goods. The platforms are sheltered by substantial overhanging eaves. Apart from minor signalling some distance to the north, now on private land, and a storage shed located on the Port Fairy wharf, the Railway Goods Shed is only infrastructure remaining of the terminus of the Melbourne to Port Fairy line via Warrnambool and Koroit. In its day, the railway represented an important form of transport to and from Port Fairy, both for passengers and cargo. In the past, the shed was critical for the transport of local fish and wool. The building survives with an excellent degree of integrity and its condition is generally good but some localised parts of the fabric are in poor condition.

 When we got ready to leave Port Fairy in the morning I discovered we had a flat tire.  We managed to drive to a local tire sales/service business and have it repaired for $35 Australian which is about $24 American.  Wages in Australia are quite high for everyone and the cost of goods and services are very high also.

After breakfast we headed back to Torquay via an inland route.  We had a long drive to make in one day and the ocean road was too slow.

We came across a winery with free tasting and pulled in for some good wine.  The Basalt Cellar Door winery has been in business for just a few years and produces a small number of cases of wine.  We tried a few of them and none appealed to me, but Gerry liked one enough to buy a glass of wine while we were there.  We were traveling with carry on luggage and they weighed 7 kilos each which was the limit, so we couldn't bring any wine back to Sydney with us. 

 Gerry's father and my father both worked at Olin Mathieson in East Alton, IL where they produced Winchester ammunition for the military and private sales.  This sign along the road caught my eye as I drove along.

 We arrived back in Torquay and stayed at the same hotel we stopped in the first night along the Great Ocean Road.  We had a nice dinner at a brewery pub and called it a night.

 We did enjoy a nice sunset in Torquay.

Surfing school in Torquay

 We saw a few of these RVs along the road and they caught your eye whether you wanted to see them or not.  RVs (Caravans) are very popular in Australia and there are a number of RV parks.