Introduction
Victoria is the small one, and that is the point of it. In a country where the next region is usually a flight away, this is the state where you can stand on a surf coast in the morning, walk in sandstone ranges by afternoon, and be in snow country the following day. It holds Australia's most famous coastal drive, its most concentrated goldfields architecture, an alpine region that genuinely gets winter, and a desert edge — inside an area smaller than the United Kingdom.
Discover Victoria
The road runs about two hundred and forty kilometres west from the surf coast, and it is worth knowing what it is before driving it: it was built between 1919 and 1932 by soldiers returning from the First World War, cut by hand along the cliffs, and dedicated as a memorial to those who did not come back. It is the largest war memorial in the world, and it is a road. The eastern section is the cliff-edge driving everyone pictures, curving above surf beaches with the ocean immediately below. Inland from it the Otway ranges hold temperate rainforest, tall-tree walks and waterfalls, which most people skip and should not. The western end is where the limestone begins — the Twelve Apostles standing offshore in the Southern Ocean, and a series of gorges, arches and collapsed stacks along the same stretch of coast that are quieter and, several of them, more striking than the Apostles themselves. Two things about doing it: drive it west, so you are on the ocean side of the road, and give it two or three days. It is done as a single long day out of the capital constantly, and that version is a bus seat and a photograph rather than the coast. Where a Victorian trip sits against the country's other three shapes is worked out on the trip-planning guide.
Ways to Experience This Destination
A cliff-edge coastal drive built by returning First World War soldiers as a memorial — limestone stacks at the western end, rainforest inland, and worth two or three days rather than one.
Sandstone ranges rising out of farmland with the state's best walking and a major living rock-art landscape, parts of it open with traditional-owner interpretation and parts restricted.
Inland towns with public buildings far grander than their size, and an alpine region north-east of them with a real snow season and high summer walking.
The southernmost point of the mainland — granite headlands, white-sand coves and wildlife on the grass at dusk, with walks from an hour to several days.
Frequently asked questions
Cities in Victoria
Treat this Visaja page as your starting point: verify the current rules directly with the official source before you submit an application.