Introduction to Lorne, VIC

Picturesquely set at the foot of the heavily forested Otway Range, on the banks of the Erskine River, LORNE has long been the premier holiday town of the Great Ocean Road. Only two hours' drive from the city, it's hugely popular with Melbourne weekenders who relish its well-established café society and whiff of 1960s counterculture overlaid on an essentially middle-class 1930s resort. To complete the picture, the Angahook–Lorne State Park, with its walking tracks, plunging falls and fern gullies, surrounds the town.

About a thousand people live in Lorne, but from Christmas until the end of January twenty thousand more pour in; if you arrive unannounced, you'll have no hope of finding even a camping spot. The Falls Festival (www.fallsfestival.com) on New Year's Eve is celebrated with a big rock concert that attracts droves of teenagers, followed eight days later by the Mountain to Surf Run and one day later by the highlight of the peak season, the Pier to Pub Swim. It's the largest blue-water swimming event in the world and attracts as many as two and a half thousand competitors who race the 1200m from Lorne Pier to the main beach. The atmosphere surrounding these events is a lot of fun, but generally Lorne is much more enjoyable when it's less crowded, which means avoiding weekends and the peak summer season.

The main beachfront promenade, Mountjoy Parade, is enlivened by the restored Grand Pacific Hotel, with its 1870s facade, and the modern, very pink, terraced Cumberland Resort. Between the street and the beach is a foreshore with trampolines and a pool. The surf beach itself is one of the safest in Victoria, protected from the Southern Ocean by two headlands, but in summer it gets very crowded. Ten minutes east of Lorne is the secluded beach of Cathedral Rocks, a very popular nudist beach.

Information by Rough Guides

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