Port Campbell () is a coastal town in Victoria,

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands. With an area of , Australia is the largest country by ...

. The town is on the Great Ocean Road, west of the

Twelve Apostles In Christian theology and ecclesiology, the apostles, particularly the Twelve Apostles (also known as the Twelve Disciples or simply the Twelve), were the primary disciples of Jesus according to the New Testament. During the life and minist ...

, in the Shire of Corangamite. At the , Port Campbell had a population of 478. The Twelve Apostles 2011

History

The port and the town are named after Captain Alexander Campbell, a whaler and colonist of the Port Fairy region. The town was settled in the 1870s, with the first wharf being built in 1880. Port Campbell Post Office opened on 19 March 1874. It was renamed Port Campbell West in 1881 when a new Port Campbell office opened near the wharf. There were hopes of a rail connection when the Timboon line opened in 1892 but the state government vetoed the idea in 1916. The town became a centre of infamy in 1970 when the bodies of a family from Melbourne were discovered in a car that had fallen over a cliff, see

Crawford family murder The Crawford family murder was the killing of pregnant mother Therese Crawford and her three children at their home in Glenroy, Victoria, Australia, in July 1970. The family car was located at the bottom of a cliff at Loch Ard Gorge in Port Ca ...

. The town used to be the centre of a football competition known as the Port Campbell Football Association that operated from 1927, it reformed after WWII as the Heytesbury Football League and ran until 1991. At the , Port Campbell had a population of 372. At the , Port Campbell had a population of 599. At the , Port Campbell had a population of 618. Port Campbell is now a popular tourist destination for visiting The Twelve Apostles, located 12 kilometres to the east of the town and the

Port Campbell National Park The Port Campbell National Park is a national park in the south-western district of Victoria, Australia. The national park is situated approximately south-west of Melbourne and approximately east of Warrnambool. The park is located adjacent ...

, as well as maintaining a small

crayfish Crayfish are freshwater crustaceans belonging to the clade Astacidea, which also contains lobsters. In some locations, they are also known as crawfish, craydids, crawdaddies, crawdads, freshwater lobsters, mountain lobsters, rock lobsters, m ...

ing community.

Gallery

File:Port Campbell from lookout.JPG, The town seen from the war memorial lookout File:Port Campbell Headland 003.JPG, The headland of the harbour at Port Campbell File:Port Campbell Docks.JPG, The fishing docks File:Port Campbell Lord Street.JPG, Lord Street

References

External links

Port Campbell
- Official tourism website.
Official website for The Twelve Apostles Region of Victoria
Towns in Victoria (Australia) Towns in Great South Coast Shire of Corangamite Coastal towns in Victoria (Australia) Western District (Victoria) Ports and harbours of Victoria (Australia) {{BarwonSouthWest-geo-stub