Twelve Apostles closed to public as crackdown on public gatherings tightens

The Twelve Apostles Visitor Centre and Apostles viewing platforms have been closed to visitors as well as the Port Campbell Visitor Centre, which will still be manned by staff answering phone calls but closed to physical walk-ins.

The carpark and toilets at the Twelve Apostles Visitor Centre will remain open and access to the Great Ocean Road and other visitor attractions are currently unaffected.

The moves come in response to state and federal government limits on gatherings of 100 or more people in an effort to curb the spread of COVID-19.

READ MORE:

Corangamite Shire Mayor Neil Trotter said the impact across the region was already at breaking point.

"It's concerning because it will probably mean visitation to the area will further decrease and we don't know how long this could go on for," he said.

"It will have an impact on local industry and with flights suspended once the current crop of tourists go home there will be no-one to replace them.

"It's noticeably quieter, domestic tourism was replacing international tourism to some extent but people have become very wary about meeting in confined spaces so the restaurants and hotels are finding it very tough.

"I think we're in for a long, torrid time."

He said a significant portion of the shire's tourism employees were young casual workers and there was concern for the future of businesses along the Great Ocean Road.

"There's a large casual workforce in tourism and while our unemployment figures are at 2.6 per cent and that's going to blow out very quickly, especially for a lot of our younger people."

Great Ocean Road Regional Tourism general manager Liz Price urged people to continue visiting the region while they still can.

"Most businesses are still open, the Port Campbell National Park is still open they have just closed the lookouts," she said.

"We encourage people to come here, there's lots of other places you can go to see this spectacular coastline, of course while adhering to advice and practising social distancing.

"This is a unique challenge, it's a global health and economic crisis and we have an industry full of micro-businesses that are trying hard to keep revenue through the door and service their local communities."

Parks Victoria said a time frame for closures has not currently been set.

"The advice from the Victorian Chief Health Officer is to ensure that public gatherings of 500 or more people do not occur. These sites are extremely popular and regularly see over 500 people visiting at one time. Parks Victoria has decided to close these sites as a measure to protect the health of visitors and staff," Parks Victoria said on its website.

We have removed our paywall from our stories about the coronavirus. This is a rapidly changing situation and we want to make sure our readers are as informed as possible. If you would like to support our journalists you can subscribe here.