Projects to tell Great Ocean Road’s story

THE 100-year anniversary of the start of construction of the Great Ocean Road will be celebrated through a number of projects funded by the state government.

Treasurer Tim Pallas visited Bells Beach on Tuesday to announce the collection of initiatives, which are worth about half a million dollars and will be delivered in this financial year, to commemorate the road’s history.

The main project will be a documentary titled “The Story of the Road”, which will show how the road came to be – detailing its construction by World War I returned servicemen from September 1919 onwards and their lives as they built the 243-kilometre road, joining the isolated towns along the western Victorian coastline.

The documentary will be launched as part of a month-long event that will include gala screenings and several pop-up cinemas housed in shipping containers across the region, showing short films specific to each location.

Alongside this, The Great Ocean Road – Beacon Technology Project will use a mix of augmented reality, film and written content to tell the stories of the road through beacons attached to park benches dotted along the route.

Great Ocean Road Regional Tourism general manager Liz Price said the projects were a collaboration between the local councils and tourism associations but was especially driven by the Lorne Historical Society, which was keen to recognise the World War I servicemen who took part in building the Great Ocean Road.