Aireys Inlet, a stunning highlight of the Great Ocean Road

One of the coast's oldest settlements, Aireys Inlet has grown around the famous Split Point Lighthouse into a beautiful holiday village with breathtaking scenery and an abundance of activities.

More about Aireys Inlet

From Aireys Inlet there are clear views across Bass Strait to the blue mauve hills of Lorne, Mt St. George and Cape Patton in the west.

To the east, Anglesea’s Point Roadknight and the higher land on the Mornington Peninsula, seem to float above the sea on a clear day.

Aireys Inlet has a hotel with views, a motel, a caravan park and numerous cottages and bed-and-breakfasts.

There is a general store and a range of craft stores and galleries. There are superb cafes and restaurants and a wide range of outdoor activities to be enjoyed.

Horse riding, fishing, surfing, mountain biking, canoeing, and excellent hang gliding are features of the area.

Beautiful cliff walks take in the rocky reefs and sheltered coves which are a feature of the town. The Great Otway National Park (22,350 hectares of hilly bushland) backs the town and contains heath lands rich in orchids and ground plants, several types of eucalypt forest, melaleuca swamp and fern gullies.

For more information, maps and an image gallery of Aireys Inlet go to www.aireysinlet.org.au.

A brief history

The land was occupied by the Mon-mart clan of the Wathaurong Aboriginal people. Their name for the small estuary now called Aireys Inlet, was "Mangowak" – which meant “a good place for hunting swans”. The current name of the creek, the “Painkalac”, comes from their words, “Paen” for fresh water and “killock” for camping place.

The creek was also the border between the Wathaurong people and the Katubanut (King Parrot) people, who occupied lands west to the Gellibrand River.

William Buckley camped at “Mangowak” in 1803 on his first desperate foray westwards and later visited the area with the Aboriginal tribe that adopted him.Until the first leg of the Great Ocean Road was built between 1920 and 1924 (see Eastern View), access to Aireys Inlet was along the beach from Lorne at low tide or by road over the rugged Otway Ranges.

The first school room was in a boarding house and it continued until local timber milling declined after the first world war.  The opening of the Great Ocean Road bolstered population but the school which reopened in the 1930s, closed again in 1942.

Only in the 1960s did the population again justify opening a school. Agriculture and timber gave way to occupations in tourism.

In February, 1983, the Ash Wednesday bushfires devastated Aireys Inlet, razed 219 houses and much of the town’s physical history. The whole town has been rebuilt since and, like the bush, has thrived after the fires.