I've done the Great Ocean Road before, but these new stops stunned me

I’ve travelled the Great Ocean Road since I was a kid, but there is always something new to discover.

By now I should know every kink in the Great Ocean Road. I’ve travelled it since I was a kid – we lived in Warrnambool, spent every summer with my Apollo Bay cousins – but each time I visit Victoria’s southwest there’s something fresh and inspiring to discover.

To prove the point I popped down in December and pinballed between at least half a dozen new places offering everything from marine farming to winemaking. These spectacular lands of the Eastern Maar, Wadawurrung and Gunditjmara people are renowned for the windswept, rugged beauty of their coastline, but less so for the man-made temptations along the route.

Port Fairy’s not officially on the Great Ocean Road, but I reckon it’s always worth going the extra miles (take the Princes Highway if pushed for time) for a dose of its early-settler charm and bougie beach life. Is this Australia’s most charming seaside village? It’s certainly one of the oldest, with over 60 National Trust-listed buildings including the Georgian-style Oak & Anchor, my inn for the night.

The 1857 hotel has been sharply renovated, blending exposed bluestone walls and antique windows with terrazzo flooring and capacious designer bathrooms. There are seven suites and mine, Lulubelle, is at least the size of two hotel rooms and has first-floor views over the village. Conveniently, there’s also a terrific bar and restaurant here, Sidro, where a glass of Henty-region wine with grilled graviera cheese (aka saganaki) followed by confit duck leg takes me to my happy place.

Port Fairy has over 60 National Trust-listed buildings including the Georgian-style Oak & Anchor, my inn for the night. Picture: Emily Godfrey/Visit Victoria.

Next morning I drive six minutes out of town to the first of the GOR’s new attractions. Ocean Road Abalone has stood on the dunes above Little River Beach since the 1990s, but only opened its doors last year for monthly tours. The “glorified farm”, as operations manager and engaging host Hamish Ebery calls it, is a series of greenhouse-style domes beside the Southern Ocean. Tours are surprisingly fascinating and informative and end with posh platters of charred abalone dressed in wasabi mayo and blue scampi roe.

Half an hour from Port Fairy, the dairy town of Macarthur is best known today as the gateway to Budj Bim National Park and the World Heritage-listed cultural landscape of the Gunditjmara, whose 6600-year-old eel traps were this region’s original fish farms. After a visit pop in to Suffoir, Michelle and Pieter Badenhorst’s hillside winery, distillery and menagerie. They make, in Peter’s words, a “massive variety” of adult refreshments on site, from red wines to aromatic gins (Sticky Chai, Sweet Smoke Rosemary) and craft beers, whisky, vodka and liqueurs. Ideally enjoyed alfresco with one of their impressive food platters and the resident emus, Gin and Tonic, for company.

I’ve long been a fan of the circa 1948 Apollo Bay Fishermen’s Co-op. Picture: Kendall Hill.

Next on my discovery tour of the B100’s latest distractions, Timboon. This hinterland town 25 minutes north of the Twelve Apostles is already famous as a gourmet stop (Bouchier’s butchers, Railway Shed Distillery, Schulz organic dairy). Just opened the week of my visit, Babche Wines’ chic cellar door on Main Street showcases the elegant, handmade wines of Niki Nikolovski and Tim Byrne. Nikolovski learned the craft from her Macedonian grandma, or babche, with whom she’s spent 25 summers making wine as well as working vintages in prestige estates across the world. As winemakers she and Byrne are traditionalists and perfectionists. They hand-pick and basket-press fruit and interfere very little with the fermentation process to produce beautifully balanced wines like the 2024 Farmer’s Fizz, a 100 per cent Goulburn Valley chardonnay bursting with youthful exuberance, and a dangerously drinkable Murray Darling lambrusco.

For years I’ve listened to chefs enthuse about the quality of the free-range, fruit-and-grain-fed birds from Great Ocean Ducks, but have never been able to visit their farm. Now, just in time for summer, owners Jodi and Greg Clarke have opened a farmgate store stocked with all things duck – salami, rillettes, smoked breasts, pâté – and unique local products “from people we know”, says Jodi. Go. It’s delicious, and just 10 minutes’ drive from Timboon.

Apollo Bay’s Big 4 Pisces Holiday Park has opened five fancy new beach tents facing the Southern Ocean. Picture: Supplied.

I’ve long been a fan of the circa 1948 Apollo Bay Fishermen’s Co-op, one of only three fish co-operatives left in Victoria and the last on the southwest coast. It’s a Great Ocean Road ritual to stop here for fish and chips or rock lobster seated at tables overlooking the town’s charming fishing port (where whales frolic in winter). Now the co-op’s opened Fresh Fish on Pascoe, a dine-in tapas-style bar serving plates of romesco octopus and boarfish ceviche alongside a busy fishmonger counter selling seafood straight from the harbour. No wonder they call this place Paradise by the Sea.

Pitch perfect

Apollo Bay’s Big 4 Pisces Holiday Park has opened five fancy new beach tents facing the Southern Ocean. Each sleeps five, has all you need (including kitchen, barbecue and bar deck) and comes with a dawn chorus of black cockatoos. Just magic.

Kendall Hill travelled courtesy of his 2007 Saab and Visit Victoria.

Originally published as I've done the Great Ocean Road before, but these new stops stunned me