Visitors to one of Australia’s most iconic tourism destinations are kicking up a stink about the poor standard of toilet facilities available there.
Although some 1.6 million people a year visit the Twelve Apostles on Victoria’s Great Ocean Road, there are only 25 toilets at the car park and information centre. The issue was brought into the spotlight over the busy Easter weekend as hordes of visitors descended on the attraction.
A flood of callers to an ABC radio talkback show complained that the facilities had been exposed as grossly inadequate. Ten of the toilets are in a semi-permanent external block not connected to the main centre which has 15 toilet cubicles.
Regional tourism leaders and Corangamite Shire Council have reacted by renewing calls for an urgent injection of government funds to upgrade the centre and asked them to consider approving a proposed multi-million-dollar Loch Ard Interpretive Centre.
The Warrnambool Standard reports they have also again raised the option of a user-pays toll to generate income for maintaining and upgrading facilities.
Shipwreck Coast Tourism chief executive Carole Reid told the Standard that Great Ocean Road visitor numbers were tipped to hit 3.6 million by 2030 and upgrades should be done as soon as possible.
“It’s not just the Twelve Apostles, but the whole Port Campbell National Park where improvements are needed,” Ms Reid said. “We have world-class tourist attractions, but an absolute second-rate service … more people visit the Twelve Apostles than Tasmania and more than Uluru and Kakadu combined.”
While it is well established that the toilet facilities at the Twelve Apostles may struggle to cope with demand on occasion, Geelong Otway Tourism executive director Roger Grant also says that, at peak times, treated sewage water is occasionally discharged from the waste-water treatment plant there and into Port Campbell National Park.
However, the Environment Protection Authority told the Brisbane Times there had been no reports of ”non-compliance” at the site, which ”is considered a low-risk site as it has a waste-water treatment system that is less than five years old”.
An EPA spokeswoman told the paper that Parks Victoria had a licence to run a waste-water treatment plant at the site and was allowed to discharge ‘treated waste water.
“This waste water has been treated to drinking standard,” she said.
Tourism and Major Events Minister Louise Asher agreed the portable toilet situation did not create a good impression for interstate and international visitors.
“The state government is committed to improving tourism infrastructure, particularly in high-traffic areas like the Great Ocean Road,” she told the Brisbane Times. “The road is one of Victoria’s best attractions, and the state government would not want to discourage interstate and overseas visitors from experiencing it.”
However, Ms Asher dismissed the suggestions of some local politicians that a toll should be introduced at the Twelve Apostles to fund improvements there. She said it was not in government thinking.
