Call for permit system to control congested Twelve Apostles

Port Campbell's Phillip Younis, an SES, CFA and Surf Lifesaving volunteer, said something needed to be done to put a stop to having 15,000 people pack the site on peak days.

He also called for tourism operators to be more accountable saying he had written to the coroner about an incident which cost one international tourist her life.

Mr Younis said a young Korean couple he served when he owned the Port Campbell service station had told him that when they booked a tour they could hire a car in Melbourne at 6am and visit both the Twelve Apostles and Phillip Island penguins and be back in Melbourne that night.

"I said you won't be able to make it, it's way too far, and they had no idea because it was booked for them by a tour company," he said.

"I saw that same young couple an hour later at a car accident I attended with the SES, I held her head while she took her last breath on this earth.

"I don't blame them, I blame the tour company that sold them that. I've written letters to coroners, I tell them to view the itineraries given to these people. They should be held to account.

"Driving the Great Ocean Road is not easy for anyone, let alone someone tired after a long flight and who has never driven in the country in their life. It's just criminal."

Mr Younis said when the coronavirus pandemic blows over, things cannot go back to business as usual.

He said 15,000 visitors each day at peak times has to be put to a stop and suggested a permit system for the Apostles to limit congestion.

"Now is the time for the government to implement changes. They need to put in a permit system for the Port Campbell National Park and control the numbers," he said.

"There isn't another major tourism attraction in the world that doesn't have some kind of system in place.

"It beggars belief that they are managing it the way they are, they have absolutely no idea how many people are coming on any given day. How do you manage if you don't know how many will turn up?

"The permit can cost a dollar, it's not about the money it's about visitor experience. It will make the Apostles more sought after because there will be a limited number allowed to visit and not 15,000 people on top of each other.

"No one goes away from the Apostles now saying that was fantastic, you must go and visit that, because it's just chokers. It's not a good experience for anyone.

"Now is the opportunity to do something better, reverting back to what it was would be a big mistake."

Between November 2014 and August 2019, there were 71 crashes on the Great Ocean Road in which someone was either killed or seriously injured. Four people died and 83 were seriously injured in that five-year period while there were two fatalities were recorded in the coastal area over seven days in December.

About 6.1 million international and domestic tourists travelled the road in the year to March 2019, those from China making up the biggest portion with 680,000 visitors in the past year.

Mr Younis said it wasn't fair to local communities or emergency services workers.

"It's got to stop because I'm sick of going to car accidents. We're the ones who have to scrape these people off the roads when they get into a head-on crash, not tour operators," he said.

"What our region needs is not people flying in and driving back to Melbourne in the same say, it doesn't benefit anyone except these big companies whose agenda it is to get them back to Melbourne and milk them dry there.

"They are exploiting these poor people for monetary gain without consideration of the experience that person is going to have.

"When that Korean couple died I bet they didn't get a refund for their visit to the penguins and their hotel in Melbourne, I bet those people still got their money because it's all paid for in advance."

Road tolls and parking fees are just some of the other ideas floated for the Great Ocean Road.

He said the region needed overnight stays to survive.

"There's plenty of things to do around here and by the time they get here it's too late to tell them because they're getting on a plane the next day," he said.

"They will gain a lot of benefit and so will the region, towns like Port Campbell can't survive on day trips.

"I know it's not a very cheerful thing to be talking about but something has to happen."

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