Lorne History and Exhibition
The Lorne Historical Society has an exhibition of The Great Ocean Road, free entry, at the Lorne Information Centre. As well as this exhibition, some items held by the society have photographed, scanned or described and uploaded to the Victorian Collections. Common topics of interest around Lorne are presented below.
- ANZAC Memorial Park
- Bushfires
- Cool Times
- Festival of Performing Arts
- Fishing
- Lorne Pier
- Sculpture Exhibition
- Shipwrecks
- Streets
- Surfing
- Tourism
- Transport
- Waterfalls and Walks
ANZAC Park Lorne
A freestone cenotaph was first erected in the library paddock in 1923, to commemorate World War One. It has been moved three times to finally be in place at 57 Mountjoy Parade. World War One Memorial Cenotaph in the Library Paddock Memorial Swimming Pool behind War Memorial An Avenue of Honour for soldiers lost in...Read more
Bushfires
Lorne has been threatened by bushfires numerous times. Even the grounding of the Hinemoa in 1908 was largely due to poor visibility caused by fires in the Otways. The most destructive fires were the Black Friday fire in 1939 and the Ash Wednesday fire in 1983. The Rural Brigade log Friday January 1, 1939 is...Read more
Cool Times
Lorne became a popular holiday destination in the fifties and sixties as the baby boomer generation became more mobile and the appeal of the guesthouses for their parents’ generation had waned. Lorne was a desirable destination for surfing on the West Coast of Victoria and youth of the day were drawn to popular culture associated...Read more
Festival of Performing Arts
The Lorne Business & Tourism Association organised the inaugural Lorne Festival of Performing Arts; 50’s – 60’s Culture By The Sea September 9 – 11, 2011. Festival goers were able to experience such events as the Opening Night Cabaret and the Saturday Swing Spectacular with swing dance, and circus workshops. The 2012 Festival of Performing...Read more
Fishing
Fish from the river and the bay was an important food source for the families who settled in Lorne in the 1850s. Recreational fishing became popular as the tourist industry began in the 1860s and beyond. Fishing on Erskine river, pre Swing Bridge. (LHS photo 5651) Fishing from the rocks (LHS photo 5672) Rock fishing,...Read more
Pier
The first pier was built in 1879 to provide easier sea access for tourists, to serve the logging industry, and to deliver supplies to the town. Previously boats had to be beached and propped up while being loaded and unloaded, a dangerous operation. The original pier went through many configurations, it was triangular, L shaped,...Read more
Pier to Pub
The Lorne Pier to Pub has been running since 1981. It is an annual open water race held in January each year. Swimmers enter from the pier and swim about 1.2 km to the finish line in front of the Lorne Surf Life Saving Club . The race attracts up to 4,000 competitors and in...Read more
Sculpture Exhibition
In October 2005 a meeting of Friends of Lorne Arts met at Graeme Wilkie’s Qdos to discuss his long held dream to stage a world-class sculpture exhibition along the dramatic sweep of Lorne’s famous foreshore. This resulted in overwhelming support from the community and regional authorities, and the formation of Lorne Sculpture Exhibition Inc. The...Read more
Shipwrecks
Bass straight is notorious for many shipwrecks along the shores. Strong winds turned the shallow waters into mountainous seas and many ships became victims. Shipwrecks near Lorne Image from Wrecks along the Great Ocean Road by J. K. Money, published 1973 Godfrey John Agar has written the story of ‘The Wreck of the Godfrey’ page...Read more
Streets
The streets of Lorne have evolved over time and housed many buildings at different times. This page is to show the history of the buildings that have been on Lorne’s streets. Old Lorne map with some House names Mountjoy Estate Map Early Map Map of Lorne showing Little Colac (LHS photo 1824) Albert Street...Read more
Surfing
In 1920, Louis Whyte from Geelong surfed using a solid redwood timber surfboard at Lorne beach. Whyte had travelled to Hawaii in 1919, spending six months at Waikiki learning how to surf. He purchased four solid redwood timber surfboards from Duke Kahanamoku and brought them back to Australia. Whyte is believed to be the first...Read more
Timber
UNDER CONSTRUCTION The timber harvesting was probably the first industry to put Lorne on the map. Starting with Lorne’s first European settler William Lindsay ,who in 1849 was granted a Splitters license, so he could cut timber near Erskine river. From the 1850’s, for about a hundred years, people were sourcing high-quality hardwood timber from...Read more
Tourism
c1889. Photo by J.Norman, part of the SLV’s Collection. 1898 Manawatua and passengers at Lorne Pier 1910 The Mountjoys built a two-room dwelling on the beachfront at Lorne in 1865 for fishing weekends, riding their horses down from Deans Marsh. The word got around that there was great fishing and beautiful beaches there...Read more
Transport
Bullock Teams In the early days, pioneers uses bullock teams to transport all kinds of things, essential for building houses and businesses. Teams of bullocks were often used to haul heavy loads across rugged terrain. They were a less expensive to buy and didn’t require reins. A bullocky was a highly skilled person who managed...Read more
Waterfalls and Walks
Historically walks to waterfalls around Lorne was a popular tourist outing for many of Lorne’s early visitors, particularly catered for by the early guesthouses. The purpose of this page is to share some of Lorne Historical Society’s photos showing our visitors enjoying a waterfall or tourist attraction. Cora Lynn Creek Cora Lynn Creek is a...Read more
