Great Ocean Road Coast Committee Blog
News and stories from our iconic coast
The Great Ocean Road Coast Committee and Barwon Coast Committee of Management have joined forces with a simple message for visitors of the coast this summer.
From Ocean Grove on the Bellarine Peninsula to Cumberland River on the Surf Coast, we are asking beachgoers to ‘Share our Shores’.
The Share our Shores campaign focuses on all aspects of equitable use by all types of beach users. Read more
Great Ocean Road Coast’s conservation team recently undertook works to address an old overgrown drain at Torquay’s back beach, emptying into the sea near Voss’ car park.
Conservation Worker Scott Hives set about designing a solution. Read more
What’s a nurdle? A nurdle is a very small pellet of plastic which serves as the key material in the manufacture of plastic products. Countless billions of these small plastic balls are used each year to make nearly all our plastic products.
Accidental spillage and mishandling means that countless nurdles have ended up in our oceans, wreaking havoc on the environment.
Mistaken for food by our marine-life and seabirds, nurdles and other plastics can make animals very sick when ingested.
The Great Ocean Road Coast Committee’s foreshore rangers are busily assessing the impact of a wild weekend on the coast.
The Bert Alsop Track is a scenic walking track along the Lorne foreshore, linking North Lorne to the town’s centre and offering views across Louttit Bay and is a popular route for cyclists, walkers, and joggers.
Over the past 6 months the Great Ocean Road Coast Committee’s conservation team has been busy with the woody weed removal that started with the Green Army program in 2016, and the end of 2017 saw all of the woody weeds from the start of the track to the ‘Fat Ladies’ car park removed. This was done with the generous help of a Ford corporate group, LorneCare volunteers, and Great Ocean Road Coast’s conservation and foreshore teams.
The Great Ocean Road Coast Committee has had a busy start to the year with 560 students participating in its environmental education program along the coast. Students from kindergarten to senior secondary school have contributed over 90 hours of conservation work, making a huge impact along our precious coast.
Great Ocean Road Coast Education Program Coordinator Peter Crowcroft, also known as Possum Pete, said that it was exciting to see so many students getting involved and learning about the coastal environment. Read more
Works are well underway for the brand new Anglesea boardwalk at Demons Bluff. Coursing over the unique Anglesea heathland, the boardwalk will make up a 180m section of the 44km Surf Coast Walk, which stretches from Fairhaven to Point Impossible.
Following an engineer’s report, which revealed that cracks in the side of the cliff represented a risk to visitors, the track was re-routed in the interests of visitor safety. The boardwalk will jointly protect the fragile heathland, as well as enhance the visitor experience.
Have you seen this weed? That’s what Jan Juc Coast Action volunteers and the Great Ocean Road Coast Committee staff are asking the public as they up the ante to eliminate the highly invasive South African weed Gazania from the Jan Juc cliffs, other public spaces and hopefully people’s gardens. Read more
Each year the Great Ocean Road Coast Committee receives multiple reports of illegal activities, with staff regularly discovering evidence of poor behaviour on the coast, particularly during peak season. This summer has been no different with a recent spate of illegal behaviour on coastal reserves along the Surf Coast.
Multiple coastal sites in Torquay, Lorne, and Anglesea have been impacted by people lighting fires, littering and destroying vegetation. Party sites are particularly destructive to native vegetation, as trees are cut for firewood and rubbish is often left behind, not to mention the damage made to the stability of fragile dune systems.
Coastal Moonah Woodlands are identifiable by the presence of Moonah trees, with their gnarly wind-twisted branches, as well as other dominant species like Coast Wirilda, Coast Tea-Tree and Coast Beard-heath.
Prior to European settlement, it is thought that Coastal Moonah Woodland may have stretched as far as 5km inland in some areas. Unfortunately, much of this unique plant community has been lost due to clearing and fragmentation, with less than 10% of its original distribution remaining in Victoria. The Coastal Moonah Woodland plant community is now listed as threatened under the Flora and Fauna Guarantee Act 1988.
Great Ocean Road Coast Committee Blog 