About Lorne

 

The Town of Lorne

There's something special about Lorne. Lorne is a seaside town on Louttit Bay on the Great Ocean Road, 140km south-west of Melbourne, or about 2 hours drive. Lorne is 29km west of Anglesea. The Erskine River runs through Lorne. With Lorne’s Mediterranean feel and picture-postcard scenery, this beautiful seaside town has been attracting visitors for more than a century. 

Dare we compare Lorne to that other schick well known tourist destination, in other words, the Noosa of the South. Set between the ocean and the cool Otway forests, Lorne has a charm that's hard to surpass. Add mild weather, a touch of the café culture, shops, boutiques and galleries and it's no wonder Lorne is one of the Great Ocean Road’s most popular holiday destinations.

Prior to European settlement the area was occupied by the Kolakngat Aborigines. Louttit Bay bears the name of Captain Louttit, who sought shelter in the bay in 1841 while supervising the retrieval of cargo from a shipwreck. This part of the coast was surveyed in 1846. That year, Captain Louttit returned as master of the 'Apollo' and gave the name to that other great tourist town along the coast - Apollo Bay. 

The first European settler in the Lorne area was William Lindsay who was issued a timber-cutting licence in 1849. His two young sons were killed when a sand tunnel collapsed. Their graves can be seen, not far from the suspension footbridge which leads from the Great Ocean Road across the Erskine River to the main beach. Others were attracted by the vast timber reserves of the Otway Ranges. Tramlines and sawmills spread out into the local forests. The timber was transported via ocean-going craft from the beach at Lorne. Lorne was also the site of at least five shipwrecks in this period - the 'Osprey' (1854), the 'Rebel' (1855), the 'Otway' (1862), the Anne' (1863) and the 'Henry' (1878). 

The Mountjoy brothers arrived in 1864. They commenced farming, built a two-roomed dwelling in 1865 then converted it into the Temperance Hotel in 1868 (now Erskine House). Other rural properties were established and a townsite was surveyed in 1869. The township was laid out in 1871 being named after the Marquis of Lorne. In 1891 Lorne was visited by Rudyard Kipling who stayed at Erskine House. 

Lorne's popularity in summer can mean booked-out accommodation and traffic jams although it is fairly quiet outside of holiday seasons. Despite the hordes, Lorne retains a certain charm, owing in part to some fine old buildings. Lorne’s sidewalk cafes, eating houses and boutiques of Mountjoy Parade contribute to Lorne’s mediterranean air. The golf course in Holiday Rd overlooks Lorne. The Lorne pier is a popular fishing spot in an area noted for its snapper, garfish, salmon, trevally, couta, whiting, barracuda, trout and bream. The current permanent population of Lorne is about 1500.

After World War I, the Great Ocean Road was carved out of the coastline, a memorial to those who had fought in the First World War. The road builders were ex-servicemen. The section as far as Lorne was opened in 1922, although the Great Ocean Road was not completed in its entirety until 1933. It greatly facilitated access to Lorne which had hitherto been approached from the interior. The first passenger service from Geelong to Lorne was established in 1924 and guesthouses began to appear in the 1930s. The fishing industry was also established on a small scale at Lorne in 1936 but it expanded considerably in the 1940s. The Ash Wednesday bushfires swept through the Lorne area in 1983, destroying 76 houses. 

New Year's Eve is an activity-filled day of the calendar at Lorne. The Mountain to Surf Swim is held on the first Friday evening in January and the Lorne Pier to Lorne Pub Swim on the following day. The Pier to Pub draws over 4000 swimmers for the 1.2km swim watched by over 20,000 spectators. The Lorne Summer Fair falls on a Saturday late in January and the Great Otway Classic Foot Race is held on the Queen's Birthday weekend in June finishing in Lorne.