The most iconic sight and enduring image for most visitors to the Great Ocean Road, the Twelve Apostles provide a fitting climax to the journey. Jutting out from the ocean in spectacular fashion, these rocky stacks stand like they’ve been abandoned to the ocean by the retreating headland. Today only seven ‘apostles’ can be seen from a network of viewing platforms connected by timber boardwalks around the clifftops.
There’s pedestrian access to the viewing platforms from the car park at the Twelve Apostles Visitor Centre (more a kiosk and toilets than an info centre) via a tunnel beneath the Great Ocean Road. The best time to visit is sunset, not only for optimum photography opportunities and to beat the tour buses, but to see little penguins returning ashore. Sightings vary, but generally they arrive 20 to 40 minutes after sunset. You’ll need binoculars, which can be borrowed from the Port Campbell Visitor Centre .