Explore the Otways It’s worth it!

At this time of the year, the beaches around Lorne are hard to beat, providing the weather is good. If, however, you encounter a day when it is not beach weather, remember that when you are in Lorne, you are in a unique environment in which the rainforest comes down to the ocean and the forests of the Otway Ranges provide for some amazing experiences on those days when the beach is not so attractive.

Visit one or all of the 10 waterfalls within a 10km radius behind Lorne and take advantage of the majestic rainforest in our backyard. Take an easy stroll or get more active with 50km of marked tracks. Our backyard is bigger than you think and can take days, if not weeks, to explore. As we say: if it’s raining, go to the rainforest!

To explore the waterfalls behind Lorne, grab a copy of the free Lorne Walks and Waterfalls map from the Lorne Visitor Centre, and ask one of the friendly staff and volunteers for suggestions.

If you don’t mind travelling a little bit further, then the Redwood Forest near Beech Forest is a rewarding experience. These trees were planted in 1936 at the Old Aire Valley Camp. They are growing under ideal conditions beside the Aire River and have attained an enormous size in 50 years. The group planting is particularly attractive in the landscape reminiscent of the Redwood stands in California. This planting is in excellent condition.

Ross Bilton, a journalist with The Australian, wrote about this redwood forest: “In a small corner of the Great Otway National Park in southern Victoria, beside the Aire River, there’s a curious interloper among all the familiar native trees: a stand of majestic California Redwoods, 500 or so in number, their crowns soaring 65m above the forest floor. Roger Smith predicts they’ll one day be the tallest trees on Earth – but we’ll have to wait a few hundred years to find out if he’s right.

Smith, 76, grew up in the nearby town of Beech Forest and knows this patch of redwoods like no other person. “They’re five years older than me,” he says. “I remember when they were the size of broom handles.” There was a displaced persons camp beside the redwood stand when he was a kid – the refugees from war-torn Europe worked in experimental softwood plantations, of which this was one – and he’d often go down there to score biscuits from the camp cook.

Smith, who followed his dad into a lifelong career as a forester, and in retirement wrote The Redwoods of the Otway Ranges, says these trees will reach full maturity at around 600 years old and could one day top 130m. That’s around 15m taller than Hyperion, an individual redwood in northern California that’s the world’s tallest known tree. Smith says the growth data shows the Otway redwoods are developing faster than those in their native habitat – a result of the Otways’ deep, rich soil, abundant rainfall and summer fogs rolling in from the Southern Ocean.

Thankfully, this stand was never harvested – other fast-growing softwood species, notably radiate pine, proved more suitable – and has since been incorporated into the National Park, assuring its protection. These days, tourists marvel at the quiet of the place, the vertical lines. “It’s like being in a cathedral,” says Smith, who lives in Melbourne now but still visits the redwoods two or three times a year. “I regard this place as my spiritual home.” Ross’s article appeared in a series of stories under the banner “Heart of the Nation”. The Redwood Forest is indeed a unique experience in our nation and well worth a visit. As we said at the start: explore the Otways, it’s worth it!