Grey River is a rural locality in the Shire of Colac Otway, Victoria, Australia.[2] It lies on the Great Ocean Road at the mouth of the Grey River, from which it derives its name.

Grey River
Victoria
Grey River is located in Colac Otway Shire
Grey River
Grey River
Coordinates38°40′50″S 143°50′06″E / 38.68056°S 143.83500°E / -38.68056; 143.83500
Population0 (2016 census)[1]
Postcode(s)3234
Location
LGA(s)Colac Otway Shire
State electorate(s)Polwarth
Federal division(s)Corangamite
Localities around Grey River:
Wongarra Wongarra Kennett River
Wongarra Grey River Bass Strait
Wongarra Wongarra Bass Strait

Grey River Beach is located in the area, and contains car parking and picnic facilities. Surf Life Saving Australia notes that the beach "is often more boulder than sand" and "unsuitable for safe bathing, apart from in the protected tidal pools at high tide." The coastline in this area is commonly used for rock fishing.[3]

In 1918, it was reported that the mouth of the Grey River would be renamed "Suvla Bay", among a number of other Great Ocean Road locations renamed after World War I battlefields. The name did not stick in common use and was never formally gazetted.[4][5]

In December 2015, the locality was briefly evacuated due to the bushfires that severely damaged nearby Wye River and Separation Creek, and was subject to numerous bushfire warnings in the following days as serious fears were held that the fire, at the time still out of control, would burn in its direction.[6][7]

References

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  1. ^ Australian Bureau of Statistics (27 June 2017). "Grey River (State Suburb)". 2016 Census QuickStats. Retrieved 5 September 2020.  
  2. ^ "Grey River (entry 101376)". VICNAMES. Government of Victoria. Retrieved 15 October 2014.
  3. ^ "Grey River". Beachsafe. Surf Life Saving Australia. Retrieved 15 October 2014.
  4. ^ "The Great Ocean Road". The Argus. Melbourne. 17 September 1918. p. 8. Retrieved 15 October 2014.
  5. ^ Kerr, Rosemary (June 2012). Roads and Remembrance: Meaning, Memory and Forgetting along Australia's Great Ocean Road (PDF). Tourism, Roads and Cultural Itineraries: Meaning, Memory and Development. Quebec. Retrieved 15 October 2014.
  6. ^ "Bushfire forces evacuation of Wye River and Separation Creek". The Australian. 25 December 2015. Retrieved 3 March 2016.
  7. ^ "Great Ocean Road bushfire: Three towns to be evacuated on New Year's Eve". Geelong Advertiser. 31 December 2015. Retrieved 3 March 2016.