“Confused to the crowd they follow you mute,
dismayed at the thought of you greeting them:
To redeem the world, they need to think,
your blood can surely suffice.
They will sow it by sea and land
Among woods and cities thy good news,
But this tomorrow, with better faith,
tonight the terror is stronger.
Not one of them shouts a farewell to you
For being discovered a cousin of God:
the apostles have closed their throats to the voice,
brother bleeding on the cross.”
F. De Andrè, Via della Croce
Table of Contents
- Introduction
- Itinerary in pills
- Day 1: Melbourne
- Day 2: Great Ocean Road and Twelve Apostles
- Conclusions
Introduction
When my (at that time not yet) wife and I began planning our trip between Australia and the Cook Islands, we had kept the state of Victoria out of the itinerary. In fact, having to consider having only 3 weeks to visit the sights of our greatest interest, we were convinced that it would be impossible to include that as well, although aware of what we would be missing. Then we thought that among the experiences we should try before we die would be to eat in the company of the 12 Apostles (though possibly not as a last supper, as a long-haired fellow far more authoritative than us did), so we matured in our decision to cut elsewhere. Finally, the moment we saw the airfares, and being thunderstruck by landing in Melbourne instead of Sydney, we interpreted the message almost as a divine fact.
On the other hand, the more earthly fact that had to be taken into account at that point was the enormity of Australia, which still forced us to tighten our schedule and focus on the most unmissable attractions in that region. In deciding what to cut out, weather conditions also came to our rescue. Having travelled in August, we knew in fact that the time of year would not be ideal for visiting southern Australia, although the temperatures were still not extremely cold (around 10 degrees during the day, a few less in the evening). After all, what we were (and actually remained) most attracted to were the Red Center and the Great Barrier Reef, for which August corresponds to one of the best times to visit.
Itinerary in pills
Victoria is home to several attractions of interest, including cities, scenic roads and nature parks. First and foremost is Melbourne, a dynamic and cosmopolitan city, considered Australia’s capital of culture and second in size only to Sydney. Among the most interesting destinations located around Melbourne, particularly about 150 km south of the city, is worth mentioning Philip Island, known mainly for the so-called Penguin Parade, which is the parade of penguins that inhabit the island, visible throughout the year in the evening hours. From Melbourne you can also easily reach the mouth of the Great Ocean Road, a 243-kilometer coastal road listed as an Australian National Heritage Site, and considered among the most spectacular scenic roads in the world. Among the highlights of the Great Ocean Road are the Twelve Apostles, imposing limestone stacks that are among the most photographed sites in all of Australia. Also along the coast, this time east of Melbourne, is Wilsons Promontory National Park, a location that is among the most popular for hikers because of the more than 80 km of trails within it, which overlook coastal landscapes and white-sand beaches, suitable for both surfing and swimming. North of Melbourne, inland lies the Goldfields, a place of cultural interest that encompasses rural and urban landscapes that were the scene of the famous Gold Rush. Finally, also inland, west of the Goldfields is Grampians National Park, home to the majority of Victoria’s rock art sites, as well as idyllic mountainous landscapes.
Having only 2 days to devote to the State of Victoria, we used the first to visit Melbourne and the second to drive the Great Ocean Road to the Twelve Apostles, returning to Melbourne in the evening. Below is the itinerary in brief.
| Day | Location | Notes | Map |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Melbourne city | Morning arrival in MEL. Night in Melbourne | Melbourne City |
| 2 | Great Ocean Road | Night in Melbourne | Great Ocean Road |
| 3 | Flight to Red Center | – | – |
Note on travel documents: entering Australia requires a visa, which can be applied for free online at the Australian government website by filling out a visa form. Issuance is immediate.
Day 1: Melbourne
Melbourne was the city with which we began our adventure in Australia. It is as we know a very large city, divided into 31 municipalities. The style of the city is modern, having been founded only in 1835, developing rapidly.
We land in Melbourne around 7 a.m. local time, after a long journey that began two nights earlier from Italy, which had cost us trying to sleep 2 nights in the air (with little success). So you can imagine the degree of fatigue with which we stepped off the plane, considering that it was moreover 11 p.m. for our physique, given the 8-hour time difference between Melbourne and Italy. The tactic to get over the time difference quickly was to head straight to the hotel to try to get a couple of hours of sleep, and then get up before lunch and do some intensive sightseeing, so that we would arrive tired in the evening and then sleep a worthy number of hours until the morning of the next day. I guarantee that it worked brilliantly. We were thus able to visit Melbourne in a generous half day.
Once we landed at Melbourne Airport (MEL), picked up our luggage and bought a local SIM card, getting downtown was quite easy, we just had to take the Melbourne city express direct to the Skybus coach terminal near Southern Cross station, and from there walk to the hotel in about 5 minutes. We stayed at the Great Southern hotel, which is not an irresistible place, but it was very convenient for getting to and from the airport and downtown, as well as for our planned excursion the next day, which included that hotel among the pick-up stops.
After our few, well-deserved hours of sleep, we then got up before lunch to begin our city tour. Our itinerary begins at Flinders Street Station, the first railway station and a true symbol of the city. The building is neoclassical in style, features a tower with clocks and is topped by an octagonal dome. It is very impressive to see the building illuminated even at night.
From the station we immediately arrive at Federation Square, the most famous square in the city. The square is quite large, has an irregular shape and is paved with nearly 500 thousand hand-laid stone blocks. The façades of the surrounding buildings have a flaky coating. Federation Square is also home to a number of cultural centers, notably the Ian Potter Center (free, admission 10 a.m.-5 p.m.), within which important works by Australian artists are housed, the Australian Center of Moving Images (free, admission 10 a.m.-5 p.m.), and the Koorie Heritage Trust, dedicated to Aboriginal folk traditions. You can also catch a glimpse of the Melbourne skyline from the square.
A number of attractions are then located within walking distance of Federation Square, which can be reached by diverting onto Swanson Street:
- St. Paul Cathedral, built in the late 1800s
- the Melbourne Town Hall (free admission), inside which is housed the largest Romantic organ in the southern hemisphere (Grand Organ) and the piano that belonged to Paul McCartney
- the immense State Library of Victoria
- the Royal Arcade, a gallery of Parisian-style stores
- the Chinatown district
- the Old Melbourne Gaol, originally built as a prison (whose inmates include Ned Kelly, Australia’s most famous outlaw), now used as a museum
Suggestive is the detachment between ancient and modern visible in the vicinity of the cathedral.
Continuing on Flinders street, we then come to Hosier Lane, a street plastered with ever-changing murals, somewhat like the John Lennon wall in Prague.
Continuing further up Fliders street, we come to Fitzroy Gardens, beautiful gardens with elegant, flower-filled avenues. Within the gardens, of particular interest are the Dolphin Fountain and especially Cooks’ cottage, the oldest building in all of Australia, built in 1755 and belonging to the family of James Cook. That’s right, the one from the Cook Islands.
Adjacent to Fitzroy Gardens is St. Patrick’s Cathedral, the largest church in Australia, built at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries in the neo-Gothic style, which features a basalt facade. It is worth visiting the cathedral internally to see the imposing 4500-pipe organ and the very heavy bells, as well as the mosaic decorations. Also not far from the Cathedral is Parliament House, or the Parliament of Victoria, and the Old Treasury Building, a neoclassical-style building built to store gold from the Victoria deposits.
Returning to Flinders street, we next detour onto Batman Ave (it is not dedicated to the superhero everyone knows, but to one John Batman, among the founders of the city of Melbourne), to stop first to appreciate the skyline near the station and then to reach Birrarung Marr, a beautiful park bordering the Yarra River.
The park offers, among other things, what I personally think is the best view of the city skyline, where you can also get a good view of the Eureka Skydeck, Melbourne’s tallest building (297 m). Among the most striking sections of the park, I mention the one that leads to the Melbourne Cricket Ground, via the William Barak Bridge.
Crossing Birrarung Marr, we arrive at the Royal Botanic Gardens, huge gardens dating from the Victorian era that also house the Observatory, Government House and the Ian Potter Foudation Children’s Garden within them. We then continue in the direction of St. Kilda Road to reach the Shrine of Remembrance (free visit daily from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m.), one of Melbourne’s most iconic monuments inspired by the Mausoleum of Halicarnassus and built to commemorate Victoria’s fallen soldiers in World War I. Another city skyline can be seen from the monument.
We later arrive by streetcar (given the significant distance) to St. Kilda Pier, crossing Albert Park Lake. The pier offers another rather impressive view of the city skyline.
In the meantime, the temperature is starting to get colder and we are getting tired, so we treat ourselves to a hot meal nearby, waiting for the sky to darken completely, to return to Birrarung Marr and see the skyline by night.
At this point we are really exhausted, so we go back to the hotel and throw ourselves into the arms of Morpheus.
Day 2: Great Ocean Road and Twelve Apostles
The idea of arriving in Melbourne was mainly related to the possibility of comfortably visiting the Great Ocean road in one day, all the way to the Twelve Apostles. The Great Ocean Road is one of the most beautiful and famous roads in all of Australia. As you drive along it, you can enjoy breathtaking views of towering cliffs and huge beaches, on whose shores rushing waves suitable for surfing, and pass by areas populated by koalas.
We decided to go with a local agency, Sightseeing tour Australia, for the excursion. The decision to opt for a bus tour instead of traveling independently was dictated by the fact that we did not feel comfortable renting a car, as the road is very long (between there and back it is about 7 hours, traveling two different roads) and we were not sure if the time zone tactic mentioned earlier would work. In addition, driving in Australia is in the English way, an experience we had not experienced up to that point, so it did not seem appropriate to start with so many kilometers, considering moreover that the first part of the journey is in traffic and the second part full of curves. Moreover, the overall cost (90 AUD each, just under 60€) was even lower than what we would have spent between car rental and fuel, and still we managed to see even more than we wanted to. In summary, in hindsight, we did not regret our choice.
Pickup at our hotel is scheduled at 7:30 a.m., the bus arrives on time. The Great Ocean Road entry point is in Geelong, the second largest urban center in the entire state of Victoria.
Following the Great Ocean Road, it takes about 5 hours to get all the way to the Twelve Apostles. Alternatively (option chosen for the return trip), you can get all the way there via an easier inland road, shortening it considerably (total time about 2 hours). On the way, we stop at several scenic spots, carefully selected by the guide, and at several beaches. Being an unsuitable month for swimming, there is hardly anyone on the beaches besides us. Notable beaches encountered along the Great Ocean Road include Back beach in the Torquay area, and Bells beach, located between Torquay and Anglesea, the latter chosen as the setting for one of the most famous scenes in the movie Point Break.
In addition to the beaches, near Kennett River, we stop at the caravan park to try to catch a glimpse of some koalas perched in the trees. We unfortunately manage to see only one, but better than nothing. A curiosity of which I was unaware is that the renowned sleepiness of koalas is due to the leaves they eat, which would actually be poisonous to them.
In the park we also see a number of colorful birds, which sometimes use us for support.
We have lunch later in Apollo Bay before heading to Port Campbell National Park, the highlight of the day. The park is in fact home to the main attraction on the Great Ocean Road, namely the Twelve Apostles, impressive and spectacular rocky stacks that emerge from the ocean. Only seven stacks are actually visible from the viewpoint, which is not far from the parking lot and consists of wooden platforms. Among the best times of the day to visit the Twelve Apostles are definitely the evening hours around sunset, as it is also possible to spot penguins. We will not be able to catch a glimpse of any, nevertheless the cliff show from the viewpoint is really special, the rocks can be seen very close and are much larger than one would imagine from photos.
The plan would be to see the Twelve Apostles solely from the viewpoint, but we arrange with the bus driver to be dropped off there while some among the other tour participants break away from the group to take the scenic flight (which we were not interested in). In this way we manage to get to Gibson Beach, a beach that can be reached in about 20 minutes by walk. We walk fast also because we have to cross a path where there are reports of the massive presence of snakes (we didn’t see any, but on the other hand we heard more than suspicious sounds), before we arrive at the Gibson steps, a flight of steps so named in honor of one Hugh Gibson, who dug the steps by hand into the cliff in the 19th century. The steps eventually provide access to Gibson Beach.
The beach is not for swim because of the very strong waves, which have caused several boats to collide with the reef over the years, but there are people diving in, despite moreover the low temperature (it is about 10 degrees in Melbourne). Even from the beach the spectacle is beautiful; it really looks like being in a movie.
We unfortunately have just enough time to take a few photos, without being able to enjoy the moment properly, but we make do with it. Having finished our visit to the Twelve Apostles, we arrive by bus at the second highlight of the tour, namely the Loch Ard Gorge lookouts, including The Arch and Razorback, the latter so named because the shape of the most imposing rock resembles that of a razor. The lookouts are within easy walking distance from the parking lot. Again, the views are absolutely noteworthy.
Having finished this last stop, we return to Melbourne, this time taking the inner road, which allows us to arrive at the hotel in a couple of hours.
Conclusions
Arguably, the state of Victoria would deserve far more than the two days we were able to devote to it, but the time required to manage to visit even only its main attractions would have been untenable for us. After all, this applies to all of Australia, given the high distances and quantity of noteworthy locations. Nevertheless, our degree of satisfaction at the end of the Melbourne and Great Ocean Road tour was still high. Of all the attractions visited in Australia, Melbourne was actually the one that excited me the least. The ultra-modern style does not make it in my opinion very attractive to those who prefer art cities (like yours truly), although there are nonetheless several interesting spots distributed in the downtown area. It follows that in hindsight I would not have devoted much more time to the city than what we opted for. The matter is different with regard to the Great Ocean Road. As mentioned earlier, we did not regret opting for a guided day tour, but in the context of an on-the-road trip, the various points of interest would certainly deserve a longer stop. In particular, I would say that this is especially true of Gibson Beach and the Twelve Apostles, which I imagine could be even more impressive at sunset. It must be said, however, that given the non-swimming nature of the beach and the Twelve Apostles being visible only from the viewpoint, the additional time would perhaps not change the intensity of the visit much.
At this point it is time for my top 3:
- The Twelve Apostles, undoubtedly the most exciting part
- Gibson Beach, not because of the colors of the sea (totally not worth), but because of the landscape and the conformation of the rocks that make it truly striking
- Melbourne skyline by night from Birrarung Marr
Cost note: Melbourne offers solutions a little bit for all budgets, both for food and hotels. For example, our overnight stay at the Great Southern Hotel, located in the city center, cost less than €70 per night for two, including breakfast. For meals we generally opted for average restaurants; the cost was always very affordable.
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