Torquay, Surfing Capital of Australia

Torquay is, home to the world-famous Bells Beach, is undoubtedly Australia's surfing capital. Spring Creek in the centre of Torquay is also the official start of the Great Ocean Road.

KEY ATTRACTIONS

• Bells Beach
• Surf World Museum
• Surf City Plaza (Surf Shopping)
• Golf
• Fishing

LOCATION
Torquay is around 20km from the city of Geelong, on the Surf Coast.

FAST FACTS
Population: 8,003
Area: 11.8 sq km
Council: Surf Coast Shire

NAME ORIGINS
Torquay was referred to as Jan Guck on one early map of the area, and “Puebla” in the 1882 Victorian Municipal Directory. But the first common name for the small township was Spring Creek, which intermittently flows through the town into Bass Strait, marking the divide between Torquay and Jan Juc. The evolution of the town as one of Victoria’s first seaside resorts was crowned by the name change to Torquay, after the English seaside resort, in 1892.

More about Torquay

More About Torquay
The seaside resort of Torquay features sheltered beaches east of Point Danger and more exposed surf beaches to the west. These beaches include the world famous Bells Beach, a collection of perfectly shaped underwater reefs, which helped Torquay become the Australian capital of the surf industry.
Norfolk pines and sheltered beachside picnic areas are proof of the town’s resort history. Today the town is characterised by two further influences. Many of the young residential population are today employed by the surf industry. Torquay is the birthplace of huge surf companies like Rip Curl and Quiksilver but all around the Surf City Plaza there is a plethora of smaller companies that produce stylish clothes, wetsuits, and boards for international and national markets.
The Surf World Museum houses the history of the sport in Australia and Bells Beach hosts a world championship tour event every Easter. Secondly, a widened highway and the beauty of the coast have encouraged decentralisation from Geelong.
Many younger residents commute to work in Geelong and even Melbourne. The town has a young population and is one of the fastest growing country towns in Victoria. Torquay boasts a complete range of beaches, from the sandy and sheltered to the rocky, cliff edged, and rough. It caters for water sports of all sorts with excellent venues (and supplies) for windsurfing, surfing, fishing and sailing.
There is also a complete range of accommodation – including three caravan parks - and restaurants.

A brief history

Torquay was originally occupied by the “Mon-mart” clan of the “Wathaurong” tribe of Aboriginal people – the “People of the Rivers”. The escaped convict, William Buckley, was rescued by the Mon-mart clan and lived with them for much of his 32 years in exile – much of it around Breamlea, 5 kilometres east of Torquay. Buckley was reunited with whites only when John Batman’s company returned to settle the Port Phillip Bay area in 1835. Farmers and travellers from the nearby port of Geelong first began to settle the area. By the 1870s, nearby Geelong was already a large city and picknickers, campers and fishermen began to make regular excursions to Spring Creek. James Follett settled in the area in 1871 and built a boarding house in 1878, a bathing house on the beach and a wagonette service to and from Geelong. He subsequently built the “Pioneer Coffee Palace” by the creek that opened in 1888 and later became the Palace Hotel. Although a racecourse (on the current camping ground) had been built years before, the first store was built in 1890. There were fifteen major shipwrecks between Barwon Heads and Torquay between 1853 and 1898. A combination of transliterated Aboriginal names, settlers’ surnames and shipwrecks have given names to beaches and many of the geographical features of the region.

Download a copy of the William Buckley Trail brochure here.