Apollo Bay Museum
The museum collection is housed in the historic Cable Station built in 1936 as the mainland terminal to the first undersea telephone link to Tasmania.
Key themes of the museum include the story of the laying of telephone cable from Victoria to Tasmania, maritime history of the Apollo Bay coast, and local history of the Apollo Bay and Otway districts including construction of the Great Ocean Road.
It includes displays of relics from some of the shipwrecks and ships that were essentially the primary means of access before the Great Ocean Road and of the life of what was an extremely isolated community.
Cost:
Current admission prices for the Apollo Bay Cable Station and Museum are:
Adults: $10
Secondary school students: $5
Primary school students: $1
Children below school age: Free
Private opening by arrangement costs $20 plus the normal admission fee.
THE APOLLO BAY CABLE STATION
The Cable Station officially opened on 1st April 1936. It was the Victorian end of the first submarine telephone cable linking Tasmania via King Island to the mainland.
The cable provided 65 telephone channels, 7 telegraph channels and a broadcasting channel for the ABC radio between Melbourne and Hobart. In latter years it provided 14 telephone channels.
The cable operated until 1968 when a failure occurred in the section between King Island and Stanley, in northern Tasmania. This link was then provided by radio..
Around 1970 the telephone services to Tasmania were provided using two 600 channel microwave links from Tanybryn via King Island and Mt Oberon (Wilsons Promontory) via Flinders island.
The Apollo Bay Cable Station ceased operating in 1976 and was dismantled on 20th March 1980.
Telecommunication links to Tasmania are now provided by means of two undersea 18 strand fibre optic cables. Each of these carries 120,000 communication channels.
HISTORY - APOLLO BAY & OTWAYS (EARLY HISTORY)
The Gadubanud people have occupied the rainforest, coast-line, estuaries, grass and wetlands of the Otway region for over 30,000 years.
1800 - Apollo Bay was well know to whalers and sealer of time operating in Bass Strait. First recorded sighting of the area by white man is made by Lieutenant Grant on the 8th of December 1800 on his voyage through Bass strait on board the Lady Nelson.
1836 - Explorers Gellibrand and Hesse are the first white men to penetrate the Otway Ranges. They disappeared without a trace the following year while still exploring the Otway ranges.
1845 - The first survey of the coast is done via row boat from Port Phillip to Cape Otway.
Captain Loutit sheltered in the bay from a gale on route to Portland. He was aboard the schooner “Apollo” he then name the bay “Apollo Bay”
First overland route is established by William Roadknight and his son Thomas. The track was 1.2 meters wide and was used to drove cattle from Birregurra to Cape Otway.
1848 - Cape Otway Lighthouse is completed and the light is lit on the 29th August 1848, remaining in service till 1994 Lighthouse decommissioned, replaced with a solar powered beacon which still operates today.
1849 - Timber becomes an important commodity and the first white people to settle in the area are timber cutters.
1851 - Black Thursday Victorian Bush fires destroys timber cutters settlement, much of Victoria is destroyed by fire also.
1853 - The area is surveyed and the township is known as Middleton.
1868 - The first titles to land are issued
1873 - The first wheeled vehicle is driven over the Otways via Roadknights track that has now been widened. It took 4 horses to pull the empty two wheeler.
1874 - A new survey of the town is done and Middleton is renamed Krambruk
1879 - First school is established.
1880 - first meeting of the committee to run the recreation reserve
1886 - Telegraph services are provided from the post office
1889 - First coach service to Apollo bay is established. Running from Birregurra to Apollo Bay, the journey took 2 days.
1898 - Krambruk becomes Apollo Bay on 2 May 1898.
Location
6250 Great Ocean Road, Apollo Bay 3233 View Map
✆ (03) 5237 7441
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