I started out from Brisbane on Monday 28th May taking an inland route to Melbourne, on the way I came across the Parkes Radio Telescope featured in the film “The Dish” which portrays the story with some slight embellishments of the part that this telescope played in the communications during the first moon landing.
To the bottom right of this picture the original receiver can be seen this has now been replaced with a far more sensitive unit which can be seen above the dish.
This is the replica control room equipment that was produced for the film and is very similar to the original.
The start of the Great Ocean Road at Anglesea.
Split point light station, there were no lighthouses in Australia nobody ever lived in them as they did in Britain.
More of this beautiful coastline near the light station.
The town of Apollo Bay where I stayed the night listening to the surf breaking on the beach from my motel bed. last time I was here was in 1971 then it was a small holiday resort and the Great Ocean Road was an unmade gravel road.
Apollo Beach.
Next stop was Cape Otway light station this was the first built in Australia and was built to guide ships through the Bass Straights. The telegraph station was built on the same site and enabled communication via an underwater cable to Tasmania.
The light station and surrounding buildings where the light keepers lived. There was no cement used in this building all blocks were carved from sandstone and interlocked like Lego.
A view of the coastline from the top.
The old station is no longer in use and has been replaced with this much smaller and more powerful automatic station. viewed from the top of the original station.
A series of natural stones known as the Twelve Apostles.
Loch Ard Gorge.
This feature is known as London Bridge, last time I was here these two were connected by a second arch where the gap is now.
Finally after leaving the coast road I reached Mount Gambier and stopped at the Blue Lake which is in the crater of an extinct volcano.
After a week driving and just under 3,000km I reached Adelaide and will be returning to the U.K. in a few days.
