Great Ocean Road safety campaign included in Geelong City Deal

The state and federal governments on Tuesday announced $250,000 would be spent on a Great Ocean Road visiting drivers road safety education campaign, which will involve signs promoting better awareness. The signs will be translated and symbolised for non-English speaking visitors.

The 12-month campaign will include advertisements in strategically located service centres, such as on buses and displays at Avalon Airport. A suite of promotional materials will be distributed through vehicle rental companies and other tourism businesses.

The initiative is a partnership between the governments and Victoria Police, VicRoads, the Great Ocean Regional Tourism Board and the major car rental companies.

The project comes after years of campaigning about the rising number of crashes involving international drivers. Corangamite Shire has been vocal fearing lives will be lost unless urgent changes are made to the Great Ocean Road tourist route.

The funding was announced as part of the Geelong City Deal on Tuesday, where Federal Minister for Population, Cities and Urban Infrastructure Alan Tudge said $370 million would be injected into Geelong and the broader Great Ocean Road region - with $108.15 million being funnelled into the Shipwreck Coast Master Plan.

But the governments are yet to decide what the $100 million-plus earmarked for the Shipwreck Coast region will be spent on.

After questions from The Standard, a spokeswoman for Victorian Regional Development Minister Jaclyn Symes said the reason they were not listed specifically in the plan was because the Twelve Apostles Master Plan was yet to be completed.

"Once that master plan is done, that will then dictate which priority projects will be funded with that bucket of money in the city deal," she said.

The cash was announced earlier this year and after more than six months, stakeholders are no closer to knowing what projects will be funded near Port Campbell.

The Geelong City Deal, agreed on March 11, is touted as a 10-year plan to revitalise Geelong and unlock the potential of the Great Ocean Road visitor economy.

Initiatives under the city deal include:

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