Port Campbell - Culture and History

Port Campbell was named after a Captain Alexander Campbell who was affectionately known as 'the last of the buccaneers'. He traded between Victoria and Tasmania and, being in charge of the whaling station at Port Fairy, began taking shelter in Port Campbell Bay in the 1840s during his excursions between King Island and Port Fairy.

Shell middens along the coast have provided evidence of the ancient presence, the diverse diet and the lifestyle of the Kirrae-Wurong people. Sealers and whalers were the first European visitors to these shores. As the colony grew Bass Strait became a major shipping route for cargo ships. Pastoralists moved into the area in the late 1840s with Duncan Hoyle establishing Buckleys Creek Pastoral Run in 1846 and Charles Brown leasing Glenample Pastoral Run (it was to feature in the Loch Ard rescue) in 1847.

The coast was so inhospitable that when Governor La Trobe travelled its length in 1845-46 he observed: 'I think a boat might possibly land at Port Campbell in most weathers; but with this exception, I do not know a single spot on the whole coast from Hopkins to Cape Otway where a landing could be effected with any chance of certainty.' Indeed Port Campbell is still the only sheltered refuge between Apollo Bay and Warrnambool.

This section of coastline was so isolated that it wasn't until 1875 that the town site was surveyed and the first land sales in the area didn't occur until 1878. The survey of the town site was probably due, in part, to the establishment of a beacon on the headland in 1874. By 1880 a proper pier had been built proximate to the present jetty.

In 1882 the town became famous throughout Victoria and Australia because it was the subject of one of the country's most famous hoaxes. At the time there was an unjustifiable fear of the possibility of a Russian invasion. Some wit decided to fuel this paranoia by telling The Age that there was a Russian fleet ready to attack. The invasion was to begin at Port Campbell and move across to Melbourne. So excited did the media become that some other Melbourne newspapers actually reported massacres and thousands of Russian troops moving towards Melbourne. Finally someone tried to find out the truth of the rumours and it was discovered there was only one tiny ketch anywhere near Port Campbell.

By the 1890s the coast was opening up to tourism and there were plans for a railway line but it got no further than Timboon in 1892 and passengers wanting to go to the seaside had to use a tramway.

The coast became famous for its shipwrecks. In the period from the 1840s until the 1920s there were over 80 shipwrecks on the coast between Cape Otway and Port Fairy. Nearly all of these were due to the ferocious conditions which can affect this section of coastline which is vulnerable to the Roaring Forties and the bitter winds which blow up from the Antarctic. None was more dramatic, nor more romantic, than the wreck of the Loch Ard at what is now Loch Ard Gorge in 1878. See 'Things to See' for more details of the tragedy.

Today the small township is driven by tourism. There is a still a fishing and crayfish industry and, in summertime, the beach is popular although the waters are rather cold.