Apollo Bay started as a small whaling station, and was soon after overtaken by timber logging which was in turn replaced by farming in the 1880s. Now there are more potters and musicians in Apollo Bay and the surrounding hills than dairy farmers! These past enterprises have stripped away a lot of the surrounding bush, creating a broad sweep of pasture from the Otway foothills right down to the cypress-lined beach. At one end of apollo bay is a breakwater with a harbour for the crayfishing fleet, then a vast sandy beach that goes on forever. The foreshore is similarly vast with all sorts of facilities on the wide lawns. Inland are the wonderful Otway Ranges and its rainforest overflowing with streams and waterfalls all year round. Within these ranges is the Otway National Park which starts just to the west of Apollo Bay and continues all the way to Princetown
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Two early (1900's) views of Apollo Bay |
