Anglesea is a thriving coastal township and a very popular holiday resort being about half way or half an hour’s drive from either Geelong or thriving resort town of Lorne on the Great Ocean Road. Anglesea is a blend of the quaint seaside charm of yesteryear, with its old boat houses, bed and breakfasts and laid back lifestyle combined with a vibrant cosmopolitan centre, with cafes, restaurants and boutique shopping.
The township is home to about 2500 people but over the summer months this reaches numbers around 10,000 with families flocking to the camping grounds and other accommodation to soak up some of the fantastic beach life the town has to offer. Anglesea has a fairly protected surf beach with Point Roadnight just west of the township and the rugged red cliffs along the eastern coast making a lovely half-moon bay around the Anglesea River.
The most popular stretch beach is between the Anglesea River and Point Roadnight. Surfing, windsurfing, swimming, fishing or just lying back enjoying the fresh air; there’s no better place to be on a hot day. The beaches are patrolled during the warmer months by the Anglesea Surf Lifesaving club which are one of the region’s best and have a history dating back to 1952.The beach features several surf carnivals and ocean swims over the summer which attract thousands of spectators with the annual “Anglesea Rock 2 Ramp Ocean Swim” attracting over 650 swimmers each December.
Anglesea doesn’t just have great beaches and a vibrant township on offer it has some great wilderness. The town is surrounded by sea on one side and forest on the other. The area has some amazing flora and fauna, there is estimated to be over 700 species of plant in the area and an incredible 100 varieties of wild orchid, some only found in the Anglesea area. There is abundant wildlife kangaroos, wallabies, birdlife- you might get to see an echidna waddling along the side of the road or koala or platypus upstream in the river. One spot where it is just about guaranteed to see a flock of Kangaroos is at the Anglesea Golf Course where dozens of these magnificent marsupials take shade amongst the course’s beautiful native setting. It’s not uncommon to see the grey kangaroos grazing on the grass between players.
Hidden behind the township in the tree-lined hills is quite a bit of industry. The area has a large forest reserves and the pine plantation and a brown coal mining operation and power station powers the Alcoa Aluminum Plant at Geelong’s Point Henry works on Corio Bay.
