Portland, Australia

Located on the far southwest coast of Victoria (one of Australia’s states), Portland is a historic harbor city, known as the “Birthplace of Victoria.” It was established in 1834, predating Melbourne and was the state’s first permanent European settlement. Today it is a blend of industry, home to one of Australia’s largest aluminum smelters, and a big destination for nature lovers and history lovers.

The area was settled for thousands of years by the Gunditjmara, an Aboriginal people. These people developed an aquaculture way of life on the lakes in the area. They fished mainly for eels. They lived in small weatherproof round huts. They were not nomadic and lived in villages. Some of these villages are on the dream time trails.

Now the port is mainly a fishing area, with Australian salmon and southern rock lobster the main catches. In earlier times it was a big whaling and sealing area.

The city has a population of 10,000. This part of Victoria has 4 wind farms, which supply about 7% of the state’s electricity. These wind farms collectively are the largest in the southern hemisphere.

We passed through many small towns on our way to the Great Ocean Road and the Twelve Apostles. One feature we passed was Tower Hill volcano caldera. It last erupted 35,000 years ago and is now a crater filled with water. It is a sacred area to the local aboriginal peoples. It is a very fertile area and lots of unique Australian animals can be found here, kangaroo, emu and black swans to name a few.

We had a lunch break in Warrnambool, which is on the famous Shipwreck coast. Warrnambool is the end point for the longest 1 day bike race, from Melbourne to Warrnambool, covering 267 kilometers. The area is the largest milk producing area in Victoria.

The Great Ocean Road was built in 1919 as a war memorial. It was built by returning soldiers after World War I. It was a way to reintegrate the returning soldiers into the country.

Most of our time traveling to this part of the coast was spent in cloudy skies and dense fog. We were concerned that we would not see the objective of our tour, the Twelve Apostles. Fortunately when we arrived at the lookouts the fog slowly lifted and we had great views of the sandstone stacks, cliffs and shoreline.

Although we had very long rides to get to this area it was worth it because of the great beauty of the area. The Great Ocean Road did not have great ocean views, sadly.