Tolls, name change proposed for Great Ocean Road

A historian who is pushing for the Great Ocean Road to be named in honour of the Aussie soldiers who helped carved out the route also wants tolls to pay for its upkeep.

Victoria’s Great Ocean Road should be tolled to pay for maintenance, a historian has claimed amid a push to honour the Australian soldiers who built a key section.

Thousands of WW1 servicemen began carving out the ocean route from Eastern View to Cape Patton 100 years ago next week.

Marking a century since construction began, Lorne Historical Society’s Peter Spring said the stretch should be named the ANZAC Highway.

The moniker was unofficially used at the time of construction and was referenced in historical documents, in which engineer Major William McCormack dubbed the route “truly an ANZAC Highway”.

“It is such an outstanding statement of Australian resilience and ingenuity that it deserves to be recognised,” Mr Spring said.

The road draws 6.2 million visitors each year, with buses now running in both directions to shuttle the surging number of tourists.

Mr Spring said the booming traffic had put the road “under enormous stress”, and said tolls were needed to help fund mountains of maintenance.

The Great Ocean Road memorial arch. Picture: Jake Nowakowski

Views along the Great Ocean Rd. Picture: Jake Nowakowski

Tolls were originally introduced on sections of the road during construction with a ticket stub showing a one schilling charge for the “national highway being built by private subscription”.

The user-pay system has also been floated, most recently by three councils last year, in a bid to better maintain the road and facilities.

“If level of intensive tourism is to continue, I’m in the camp that says that the government should be reintroducing tolls,” Mr Spring said.

But Great Ocean Road Regional Tourism chairman Wayne Kayler-Thomson said there were better ways to fund maintenance, particularly by growing more sustainable tourism.

“It is too simplistic to do a toll,” he said.

“You only need people to buy an extra coffee or an extra meal, stay an extra night or do an extra attraction and you can easily raise $50-$100 million a year.

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“That can then contribute to the ongoing maintenance of the road.”

VicRoads and the state government confirmed that neither had plans to toll the Great Ocean Rd or adopt the ANZAC Highway name.

The state and federal governments are pouring more than $150 million over eight years into upgrading the road and geotechnical works to keep it open and up to scratch.

“The diggers who began building the Great Ocean Road a century ago couldn’t have imagined how the road would be transformed and the extensive works we’re rolling out to protect this historic route,” Roads Minister Jaala Pulford said.

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