Loch Ard Gorge

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Panorama of Loch Ard Gorge (July 2005)

The Loch Ard Gorge (German: Loch Ard Schlucht ) is a narrow rocky bay in Port Campbell National Park , Victoria in Australia , which was preceded by a cliff, the Island Archway . The bay is a few miles west of the Twelve Apostles on the Great Ocean Road .

The Bay and Island Archway is an example of rock erosion processes . The island Archway, made of limestone , is about 25 meters high and became famous for its collapse in June 2009.

history

The rocky bay was named after the clipper Loch Ard , which ran aground in the fog near Muttonbird Island on July 1, 1878 before the end of a three-month cruise from Great Britain to Melbourne and sank. Of 54 passengers and the crew, only Tom Pearce, a cabin boy , and Eva Carmichael, an Irish woman who wanted to immigrate with her family, survived . Both were 18 years old. Pearce was washed up on the beach, then rescued Eva Carmichael, who had swum for five hours, was washed into the bay and called for help. Pearce climbed out of the bay to seek help from the dairy farmers at Glenample Station . Pearce was later honored with a medal from the Royal Humane Society of Victoria in Melbourne for his rescue act and received a check for £ 1000 from the Victoria government. Eva stayed in Australia for another six weeks before returning home on a steamboat.

The natural stone arch, the Island Archway , collapsed in June 2009. Now only two individual rock pillars can be seen. Since the collapse, the two pillars are officially called Tom and Eva after the only survivors of this ship disaster.

Location and area

The rocky bay is accessible via the Great Ocean Road seven kilometers after the Twelve Apostles . Visitors can use steps to go to the beach, which is not open to tourists.

There are some billboards and Glenample Station , which marks the end of the Great Ocean Walk , as well as a recreational area. Off the coast is Muttonbird Island and a blowhole . There is also the Loch Ard Cemetery , where the dead of Loch Ard were buried, and the Thunder Cave .

The area appears in numerous scenes in the 1982 film Pirate Movie (The Pirate Movie) and also in the TV series Journey to the Center of the Earth (1999) with Treat Williams . The bird Dasyornis broadbenti , endemic to Australia , can often be seen here.

photos

  • The Island Archway before June 2009

  • Tom and Eva (after 2009)

  • Blowhole panorama

  • Blowhole panorama

  • Cemetery for the injured passengers

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ spiegel.de : Australia's tourist magnet. Collapsed rock arch on the Great Ocean Road , June 11, 2009, accessed February 24, 2011
  2. ↑ dpcd.vic.gov.au ( Memento of the original from January 15, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. : Loch Ard , in English, accessed February 23, 2012 @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.dpcd.vic.gov.au
  3. ↑ the-great-ocean-road.com Loch Ard Gorge Precinct , in English, accessed 23 February 2012

Coordinates: 38 ° 38 '47.4 "  S , 143 ° 4' 14.3"  E