Great Ocean Road Coast Committee Blog
News and stories from our iconic coast
Great Ocean Road Coast Committee staff, environmental volunteers and local students have been busy this winter helping rejuvenate the coastline through planting, conservation works and repairs, ensuring the coast remains in good condition all year round. Read more
Does school get any better than learning outside on a beautiful day on the Surf Coast? A group of year 9 St Joseph College students experienced the coast in all its glory this Friday as part of the Great Ocean Road Coast Committee’s (GORCC) Environmental Education program. Read more
Fragile sand dunes are deteriorating due to an increase in illegal access, threatening coastal environments and posing safety risks to beachgoers.
Dune systems are being left exposed to high winds, tides and rainfall as vegetation as they continue to be trampled by beachgoers leaving designated tracks and ignoring signs. Read more
GORCC’s Coast Guardians program is a special, ongoing program created for year 9 students from four local and regional schools. Each school works on protecting and enhancing a local coastal area. Here is a blog post from Annalyse, Brittany, Cameron and Lilly from Geelong Lutheran College about their Coast Guardians experience this year: Read more
80 Rip Curl employees have joined forces with locals to protect the coastline as part of an annual event that has seen more than 80,000 indigenous plants planted on the Surf Coast over 14 years.
Enthusiastic Rip Curl staff from the Torquay Head Office worked at a range of sites including Point Impossible, Bells Beach, Bird Rock, and Whites Beach.
Rip Curl staff were divided in to 6 teams, coordinated by volunteers from Surfers Appreciating the Natural Environment (SANE), Jan Juc Coast Action, Torquay Coast Action and staff from the Great Ocean Road Coast Committee (GORCC).
Rip Curl CEO Stephan Kay said the results give him a sense of achievement and pride.
“It’s great to see the transformation of the coastal foreshore that’s occurred as a result of these efforts.
“I love seeing the regenerated sections of the coast that Rip Curl employees have worked on when I’m going for a surf or walking the cliffs,” Mr Kay said.
Each year, Rip Curl gives back to the community and demonstrates a strong commitment to the local environment by giving their employees the opportunity to participate in a paid work day of volunteering.
Planet Day Director Mark Flanagan said the primary focus of the event is to positively contribute to the public spaces in and around the Surf Coast.
“We liaise with the community groups that help manage the areas throughout the whole year and work under their guidelines,” he said.
GORCC Environmental Projects Coordinator Alex Sedger said Rip Curl is a strong advocate for environmental protection.
“The event allows a major global company to give back to the coastal environment, engage their staff, and raise awareness around local environmental issues.
The Rip Curl staff and volunteers were involved in indigenous tree planting, weed eradication, and coastal cleanup works across two days
“The Rip Curl employees weren’t afraid to get their hands dirty in planting and weeding works, and some went to extreme lengths to collect rubbish in Spring Creek using stand up paddle boards,” said Ms. Sedger.
Ms. Sedger said a number of unexpected items of rubbish were discovered.
“A car battery, bull-bar and about 50 golf balls were removed in the process,” she said.
Click here for further information on the Rip Curl Planet Day, or here to find out how you can start volunteering along the surf coast.
It may be stating the obvious but recent days have provided us with a timely reminder about the future of our coast – and indeed our world – lying with the adults of tomorrow, being the young people of today. 
What a delight then to see eager and enthusiastic Torquay College students hard at work and play down at White’s Beach this week as part of an ongoing partnership between the school, ourselves and the Marine Discovery Centre at Queenscliff. The sound of children’s voices ringing through the dunes was music to the ears while the sight of youngsters involved in coastal conservation activities while learning was a pleasure to behold.
For several years now, scores of local school children have learnt about the fragility and importance of our coast’s dune systems through their participation in the Dune Edu-Action program. The program’s focus on learning by doing sees the students undertaking a range of activities aimed at protecting our coast’s increasingly vulnerable dunes. Such activities include laying brush matting to minimise erosion and planting local indigenous plant species to restore native vegetation cover. 
We are a proud partner in this program – providing plants, tools, materials and onsite supervision – and see it as providing a vital foundation to nurturing our coast’s future custodians.
Perhaps it was a similar program that planted the seed during their past primary school days for current students from Deakin University and Gordon Institute of TAFE to take the lead in creating a new coastal volunteer group in Ocean Grove. It was so exciting to hear during the past week about this initiative, which sees the students working in partnership with their local community, Barwon Coast Committee and Coast Action/Coastcare to encourage a fresh approach to caring for the coast. 
These enterprising young adults are hoping a film night at 7.30pm on Thursday 5 August at the Ocean Grove Chicken Shop inspires other locals, young and old alike, to join them in looking after their patch of Victoria’s beautiful coastline. We applaud them for their initiative and wish them well in this important endeavour.
It’s so heartening to see local young people taking such active roles in caring for the coast as indicated by these two events. It reassures us that the future of our coast – and indeed our world – is in good hands!
We are grateful to Torquay College for providing us with the beautiful photos above and allowing us to reproduce them with this blog.
Great Ocean Road Coast Committee Blog 