Visitors to be charged to see the Twelve Apostles

Sightseers at the Twelve Apostles will soon have to pay to see the natural wonder, with the new visitor centre at the site set to have an entry fee and booking system.

The entry cost is unknown, and the state government will begin consultation with stakeholders on Monday.

“It’s only fair that visitors to the region pay a small fee to visit this world-class destination so that we can maintain it for future generations,” Environment Minister Steve Dimopoulos said.

The new visitor centre is expected to cost $126 million and is due to open at the end of the year. It includes investment from the state and federal governments.

“We’re investing in the future of the Great Ocean Road region and making sure every single cent spent in the region stays there,” Dimopoulos said.

The state government says people who live near the site and members of the Eastern Maar Indigenous community will be exempt from the entry fee.

The decision to charge to see the attraction came after Corangamite Shire Council and the Great Ocean Road Regional Tourism Board issued a joint statement in September urging the state government to seize the “once-in-a-generation opportunity” to introduce a user-pays model to access the site.

The board’s chairman, Andrew Jeffers, said implementing a charge would allow better management of visitors and protection of the coastal environment.

“As stewards of the visitor economy in this extraordinary region, we believe a thoughtfully introduced user-pays system is not only fair, it is essential,” he said.

The tourism board and Corangamite Shire also want to encourage more visitors to stay overnight in the region, as many tour groups make day trips to the Twelve Apostles from Melbourne.

The tourism sector in the region has long maintained it misses out on the economic benefits of the natural tourism attraction when visitors leave the area at the end of the day.

The Twelve Apostles remains immensely popular despite just seven limestone stacks of the original 12 remaining.

A Development Victoria report said about 2.8 million people visited the Twelve Apostles in 2019 and the figure was forecast to reach 4 million by 2026.

Corangamite Shire chief executive David Rae said in September that introducing a charge would ensure that maintaining the site as a tourism attraction was economically viable in the long term.

“Individuals benefiting from that experience should pay for it,” he said.

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