Grants recipients will enhance natural values along Great Ocean Road

THREE community groups will share $15,000 in funding from the annual Great Ocean Road Coast Committee’s (GORCC) Coastal Grants Program.

Each year, GORCC dedicates funds for community-led projects that enhance the natural and cultural heritage values of the 37 kilometres of coastal Crown land under its management between Point Impossible and Cumberland River.

Jan Juc Coast Action, St Therese Catholic Primary School and Torquay and District Historical Society have all received funding to support their work in caring for the coast.

Jan Juc Coast Action’s project will illustrate volunteer-driven environmental change on the Jan Juc clifftop through a series of four signs highlighting the previous state of the degraded landscape prior to the group’s environmental restoration efforts.

The signs will be placed in locations that show the direct impact volunteer efforts have had on creating substantial positive environmental change on the clifftop, increasing visitor value and understanding of the ecological values.

St Therese Catholic Primary School’s project “Creating a community of leaders: Out and About goes public” aims to connect school and community in the common purpose of caring for the environment and building a more sustainable future.

Funding will help contribute to building on the current successful Out and About program and opening it up to additional schools and the general public.

Torquay and District Historical Society, through their historical signs project, will produce and erect signs on historic sites in Torquay. The project aims to educate local residents, school children and visitors on what Torquay was like from the late
1800s to the mid 1900s. Funding will help produce the signs and a brochure to promote the history walk.

GORCC chief executive officer Vanessa Schernickau thanked all applicants and congratulated the successful community groups on their proactive protection of the coast.

“Environmental volunteers and community groups play an integral role in enhancing the work GORCC do between Torquay and Lorne,” she said.

“These groups do amazing work that benefits the entire community.”