Right at the moment, the Great Ocean Road Coast Committee (GORCC) is requesting feedback on options to address several significant issues associated with the current use of the Memorial Arch precinct at Eastern View. In November 2015, GORCC released an Issues and Opportunities paper as part of the Great Ocean Road Memorial Arch Master Plan. That paper contains the following statement; “There needs to be an understanding of how the arch is generally recognised. Anecdotal evidence suggests that many visitors perceive the arch to be a marker that signifies the ‘entrance’ or gateway to the Great Ocean Road. While the arch is not the official entry point to the Great Ocean Road, it is located on the first stretch of ocean front road vantage, and therefore gains this perception.”
In fact, the Memorial Arch dos not signify the start of the Great Ocean Road, nor is it a memorial to the returned servicemen who built the road. The current Memorial Arch is the fourth one on this site, previous ones being vandalised, damaged by fire or made unstable by weather and time. The original arch was erected in 1939 as a memorial to Major W.T.B. McCormack, honorary engineer to the Great Ocean Road Trust and chairman of the Country Roads Board (CRB).
Peter Alsop, an engineer with the Country Roads Board, wrote a book titled “A History of the Great Ocean Road” in 1985. He also wrote a paper in 1965 titled “An Account of the Genesis and History of the Memorial Archway at Eastern View on the Great Ocean Road” of which the Lorne Historical Society has 1 of the 11 copies published. Alsop’s paper cites the Geelong Advertiser of November 4, 1939; “With the unveiling of the memorial tablet on the archway erected over the Ocean Road at Eastern View the last public function of the Great Ocean Road Trust was held yesterday. The archway has been erected as a memorial to the late Major W.T.B. McCormack, who was chairman of the Country Roads Board and honorary engineer for the construction of the Ocean Road. The unveiling was performed by Sir Harry Chauvel in the presence of a number of associates of the late Major McCormack and residents of Eastern View. The ceremony was also attended by Mrs. McCormack and her son, Mr. W McCormack.
The memorial to the returned servicemen who worked on the construction of the Great Ocean Road is in fact, the Road itself. In particular, the most iconic, most difficult to construct section between Eastern View and Apollo Bay. This section of the road was built by returned servicemen. Other sections of what is called the Great Ocean Road such as Torquay to Eastern View and Apollo Bay to Allansford where constructed by the Country Roads Board. The intent was that the section built by returned servicemen would be named “The ANZACS’ Highway”.
In their book, The Roads to Lorne including the ANZACS’ Highway, Keith Cecil and Roger Carr wrote: “The fact that the construction of the section between Eastern View and Apollo Bay was mainly done by returned servicemen from the First World War, and the alternative name given to that section by the promoters, THE ANZACS’ HIGHWAY, has tended to be forgotten with the passage of time. We hope that these details will be more prominently featured in the years ahead.”
Their book also quotes from a letter written in 1918, by John Hennessy of Timboon, one of the many, many people who contributed money to the Great Ocean Road Trust to fund construction of the Great Ocean Road. Hennessy wrote; “I think too much stress is laid on the benefits the road is going to confer on the people en route, and not sufficient on what the road really is – a lasting memorial to the brave men who have fallen in this great struggle for freedom. What I give I am giving for the perpetuation of their memories, and not for any benefit that I may derive from it, and I think this fact should not be lost sight of.”
Recognition of the magnitude of the task to construct the Road from Eastern View to Apollo Bay has diminished over time. Were it not for the interpretive display at the Lorne Visitor Information Centre, very few people would be aware of the fact that this world-famous drive between Eastern View and Apollo Bay is in fact the world’s largest war memorial. The stories of its construction and the men who had the vision and the men who dug the road are in danger of being lost in time.
By all means, retain the Memorial Arch and preserve the environment which surrounds it, but let’s not lose sight of the true memorial, the Road itself.
Peter Spring
Lorne Historical Society
