Bells Beach and Torquay: the eastern end of the Great Ocean Road

Bells Beach and Torquay at the eastern end of the drive

The road you came for starts here. Torquay is where the count begins: 242 kilometres of memorial road west to Allansford, cut between 1919 and 1932 by more than 3,000 returned servicemen in memory of those killed in the First World War, and listed on Australia's National Heritage List in 2011 as the Great Ocean Road and Scenic Environs. Nothing marks the eastern end as dramatically as the western cliffs do, which is why a lot of visitors drive through Torquay without registering that they have already begun.

Torquay is also the administrative centre of the whole route. Decisions about the coast and the parks all the way to the Shipwreck Coast are taken from an office in this town, because the Great Ocean Road Coast and Parks Authority, the Victorian government body responsible for that land, is based here and answers general enquiries on 1300 736 533. If you have a question about a beach closure, a campsite or a track anywhere between here and the Shipwreck Coast, that is the number to call rather than guessing from an old park page.

Bells Beach sits a short drive on from town, and the viewing is arranged for it: terraced areas on the clifftop look straight down onto the reef, with stairs from the top down to the sand. You can see the whole break from above without going near the water, which is how most visitors see it and how the crowds watch during a contest. Allow for wind on the clifftop at any time of year.

The beaches, the walks and the surf culture in town

Torquay's own beaches are the easy swimming-and-sitting end of the Surf Coast, with the surf-industry shops and boardriders culture built around them. Bells is a different proposition: a reef that works on particular swells, watched from the terraces above. Treat the clifftop viewing areas and the stairs as the attraction and keep out of the line-up.

Walking here is short and clifftop rather than all-day. Paths link the viewing areas above the reef, the stairs give access to the sand when conditions allow, and in town the beachfront walking is flat. The Surf Coast is the drier, warmer end of the route: the nearest long-record station at Aireys Inlet averages a January maximum of 23.2 °C and only 620.4 mm of rain a year over 93.7 rain days, with an afternoon sea breeze averaging 20.9 km/h at 3pm and peaking at 22.6 km/h in September. Bring a windproof layer even in summer.

These clifftops double as a whale lookout from May to October, the months southern right whales spend in Victorian waters. Of the 95 sightings recorded in Victoria last season, most were around Portland and Warrnambool, with others along the Surf Coast including Torquay, so a clifftop scan in winter is not wasted time. One rule applies here exactly as it does in every park further west: an H5 bird flu warning is current, so leave sick or dead wildlife alone and phone any sighting through to the Emergency Animal Disease Hotline on 1800 675 888.

• Clifftop terraces above the reef, the main viewing point, with the break visible from the top
• Stairs from the terraces to the sand, conditions permitting
• Town beachfront for flat, short walking and a meal stop before heading west
• Winter clifftop whale scanning, May to October

What a contest period does to parking and crowds

Two events put this break on the calendar. Easter belongs to the Rip Curl Pro, which has been run at Bells Beach every Easter, and the longboarders take the first week of December, with the Bioglan Bells Beach Longboard Classic set down for the 2nd to the 6th in 2026. A professional event is run across a window of days rather than one fixed afternoon, with heats called when the swell and tide suit, so during a contest period the site can be busy on a day with nothing in the water and quiet on the day you assumed was finals.

Plan around it in practical terms. Clifftop parking is finite and the viewing terraces are the only grandstand, so during the Easter window expect the car park to fill early, expect queues on the access roads from Torquay, and expect the terraces to be occupied by people who arrived before you. Easter is also a holiday period across Victoria, which doubles the traffic on the whole eastern end of the road. If you only want to see the place, go on an ordinary weekday instead and you will have the stairs to yourself.

The December event has fixed dates, which makes it easier to use: either aim at those five days because you want to watch longboarding, or put your visit outside them.

How long day tours stop at this end

This is the first stop out of Melbourne, and it is treated like one. The standing time on a day tour is spent further west, where small-group operators document around 80 minutes at the Twelve Apostles precinct including the visitor centre; at the eastern end you get a few minutes to stretch your legs and take a photograph. If watching the reef properly matters to you, spread the eastern end across a two or three day trip, because no single-day itinerary will give you the clifftop for long.

Direction decides whether you see it at all. A classic west-bound day tour takes the coast in order, so the Surf Coast end comes early in the morning while the light is still low. A reverse-itinerary tour runs inland first to reach the Twelve Apostles before the midday wave and returns along the coast in the afternoon, which is the better plan for the main attraction but puts this end of the road late in the day. The product listings on this site do not name every stop, so ask the operator whether Bells Beach is scheduled on your date.

Of the tours listed on this site, the 13-hour small-group classic day from $98 reaches the Surf Coast first because it keeps to the familiar west-bound order, and it lists pickup from selected hotels, WiFi on board, national park fees and morning tea. The 12-hour premium coach from $63 turns that around, so this end of the road comes up on the way back. For the greatest share of the 242 kilometres in one run, the 14-hour small-group eco day from $112 goes furthest, with hotel pickup, WiFi, park fees and a coffee or tea listed. The same 24-hour cancellation window for a full refund applies to all three.

Driving the Surf Coast stretch of the Great Ocean Road

Torquay is where many visitors first drive on the left, which is the side Australian traffic keeps to, and the regional tourism body asks that you pull into the slow-vehicle turnouts instead of leading a queue. Stopping for photographs on blind corners or across private driveways is specifically prohibited, which matters on the approach roads to the break where cars pull up wherever there is a gap. Reception goes patchy once you are west of town, so get your maps and any confirmations onto the phone while you still have bars in Torquay.

Eat before you commit to the drive west. Kitchens along this coast tend to stop serving by 2:30pm, and after Torquay the next dependable meal town is Anglesea. Beyond that, the Lorne to Apollo Bay stretch is narrow, winding and slower than the distance suggests, with official advice to rest every 45 to 60 minutes and stay off it after dark. Covering the whole road in one day is something the regional tourism body tells you not to attempt, putting the minimum at two or three days.

There is one piece of admin to finish in Torquay rather than on the road. The Twelve Apostles precinct has run on bookings since 16 October 2026, and that covers the lookouts and the car park as well as the visitor centre, with cars passing through a boom gate on Booringa Road at Princetown. The amount of the booking fee that starts in April 2027 has not been published. Sort that reservation first, and screenshot it, because the reception on the way there will not be there when you need it.

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