Lorne Victoria Australia

The first pier was built in 1878 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.

Contractor Mr Anthony Kelly, using blue gum piles and timbered decking cut from the local forest area. The length of the jetty when completed according to contract will be 300 feet seaward, x 12 feet in breadth, except at the outer head of it which will be 5 or 6 feet wider, to allow for landing stairs for small craft at any time of the tide. In addition to the mooring piles there will be a tramway of 3 feet gauge laid down along the centre of the pier to within a few feet of the head.

Edward Stribling had long established an interest in Lorne through his position as manager of the Winchelsea Branch of the Colonial Bank of Australia (now NAB). The bank had an agency in Lorne so Edward used to ride a horse to Lorne once a fortnight to pay the forestry workers and the workers building the pier.

L-shaped pier

The original pier went through many configurations, it was triangular, L shaped, lengthened and concreted. After 127 years of modifications and partial rebuilds, the Lorne Pier was replaced by a new pier at a cost of $5 million. The present pier, funded by the Victorian State Government, for tourism and recreation was opened in 2007.