Great Ocean RoadPrint Page

The plaque at the Mount Defiance lookout commemorates returned World War One servicemen who built the Great Ocean Road as a tribute to their fallen comrades.

The Great Ocean Road is an Australian National Heritage listed 243 kilometres stretch of road along the south-eastern coast of Australia between the Victorian cities of Torquay and Allansford. Built by returned soldiers between 1919 and 1932 and dedicated to soldiers killed during World War One, the road is the world's largest war memorial. 

Following a visit of inspection last week by Mr. W. T. B. McCormack, chairman of the Country Roads Board, and Mr. C. R. Herschell, honorary managing director of the Great Ocean Road Trust, the directors decided to proceed immediately with the building of the memorial to the founder of the road, the late Mr. Howard Hitchcock. This will take the form of a parapet or wall, the design of which is being prepared by officers of the Country Roads Board, It will be 140 leet in length, built of rock and cement, and is to be erected at Mount Defiance between Lorne and Wye River.

In the centre of the wall there will be a raised platform or lookout, and the road at this point will be widened to 30 feet to allow of car parking so that tourists may alight and obtain comprehensive views both ways of the gigantic and majestic scenery, with the waves lashing the rocks 191 feet below. A tablet will be erected to the memory of the men of the A.I.F. for whom the road was built, to provide employment and as a memorial. On the Big Hill between Eastern View and Lome another lookout is to be erected at Cinema Point, and a tablet erected to the memory of the late Capt. E, Morley, M.L.A., who for many years was secretary of the trust. From this point a wonderful panoramic view of forest, river and ocean scenery is obtained.
Age (Melbourne), 28 July 1934.  

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