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Series Code: TIJ
Program Code: TIJ001112A
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00:01 ♪ ♪ The Great Ocean Road covers some
00:13 of the most spectacular scenery in the world. 00:15 ♪ ♪ 00:24 It winds past the magical 12 Apostles, stunning stretches of 00:29 coastline, iconic surfing beaches, lush rain forests, 00:34 misty waterfalls and seaside villages. Few other roads in 00:42 the world can boast 240 km of such awesome beauty as can the 00:48 Great Ocean Road. The coastline is magnificent. The original 01:01 inhabitants of this region along the Great Ocean Road were the 01:05 Gunditjmara and the Wetherong people. These indigenous people 01:09 have a very deep relationship with the land and the sea. Every 01:13 aspect of their lives is connected to it. They have a 01:18 spiritual, physical, social and cultural connection with the 01:21 land and the ocean and their lives are closely intertwined 01:26 these elements and the forces of nature This vital connection 01:31 is expressed in every aboriginal art form and ceremonial 01:35 performance whether it be theater, dance, physical painting 01:39 and they have lived in awe and wonder of the beauty, majesty 01:45 and power of this fabulous coastline. The Great Ocean Road 01:53 region and its diverse ecosystems team with wildlife. 01:58 Some of it lives nowhere else in the world. Along this coastline 02:02 it's common to find iconic Australian animals like 02:07 kangaroos and koalas. The Great Ocean Road region is sprinkled 02:12 with seaside villages, surfing communities, resort townships 02:16 and regional hubs. Names such as Torquay, Anglesea, Aireys 02:23 Inlet, Lorne, Apollo Bay and Port Campbell are popular 02:27 destinations along the road. Vincent Van Gogh said: 02:42 The Great Southern Ocean is often windy and stormy even 02:47 along this beautiful coastline. This week we drive along the 02:51 Great Ocean Road to explore why more than five million people a 02:56 year visit this part of Victoria Australia and how spending time 03:02 surrounded by the wild wonders of the ocean is good for us all. 03:08 Research is finding that even brief experiences of awe such as 03:13 standing on a beach and looking toward the horizon of the ocean 03:16 can lead us to be more attuned to the common humanity we share 03:21 with one another. This morning I've climbed down the 86 gypsum 03:27 steps to the beach here at the foot of the 12 Apostles. We had 03:32 to time our visit here to low tide as the sea is dangerous and 03:36 at high tide waves smash against those cliffs that are 70 meters 03:42 high. Today we spend more time working and commuting and less 03:47 time in wild places like the Great Ocean Road. Join me on a 03:57 journey along the Great Ocean Road to learn more about the 04:00 three thousand men who labored with their hands to carve this 04:04 iconic road from the mountains and to understand how the 04:08 enormity of their sacrifice and the greatness of the landscape 04:12 combine to fill the soul with awe and wonder. 04:16 ♪ ♪ 04:39 This is the Great Ocean Road in Victoria, Australia. About five 04:43 million people every year travel along the winding curves of this 04:48 road. One of the world's greatest coastal drives for the 04:52 past 80 years, it has drawn visitors from all over the world 04:57 The Great Ocean Road brings people to the edge of Australia 05:01 where the waves of the mighty Southern Ocean ceaselessly roll 05:05 onto beaches or roar at the base of dramatic cliffs. The Great 05:12 Ocean Road officially begins here at Torquay and spans some 05:17 250 km to just outside Warrnambool. Construction on 05:22 the road was started in 1919 and completed in 1932. Torquay is an 05:30 appropriate gateway to the Great Ocean Road as it has 05:34 always had a close relationship with the ocean and a strong surf 05:38 culture. It's recognized today as the home of Australian 05:41 surfing and where iconic brands such as Ripcurl and Quik Silver 05:46 began. The Australian National Surfing Museum is located here 05:52 and is the world's largest beach culture museum, a fitting 05:57 reminder of the close connection it has with the ocean and the 06:01 road that winds along its rugged shore. The Great Ocean Road is 06:11 a masterpiece of human achievement. It was built 06:14 basically by hand with help from a few explosives to break 06:18 rocks. More than 3000 men worked to build the road using 06:23 little more than a pick and shovel. 06:25 Well, it was built by soldiers from the First World War, tough 06:29 fellows they were. We called them diggers in Australia and 06:34 those men were big fellows mainly that were used of hard 06:39 work and they picked these particular type of people who 06:43 could stand up to the rigors of outdoor life. They loved doing 06:49 it because they weren't inside. Now this is during the 06:53 depression mostly and most people were out of work and they 06:57 were struggling to find work. But when these fellows were 07:01 given the job to work and build the Great Ocean Road they 07:05 thought it was Christmas. They were getting a good income, 07:08 married men a lot of them, so they could support their 07:12 families. There was diggers that fought in World War I and were 07:17 used to tough conditions and they had a great camaraderie. 07:23 Now as you can imagine in the war they all stuck together in 07:28 thick and thin and when they were discharged they were on 07:33 their own and they had to make up their own mates and this was 07:37 very difficult for them to change into civilian life. But 07:43 when they worked on the Great Ocean Road with all their 07:47 cobbers they had that same camaraderie that they had during 07:51 the war. 07:52 This sculpture, named The Diggers, shows one of the 07:55 workers handing the other a drink. It reflects the great 07:59 Australian mateship that was not only a part of the building of 08:02 the building of the road, but was so often on display in the 08:06 First World War. The sculpture is set on a plinth of rock 08:10 especially brought here from Port Fairy. The Diggers 08:13 overlooks the Southern Ocean and the Great Ocean Road. 08:17 Now the difficulty they had when they were building the road was 08:21 the rock. Now they had to drill holes in the rock for a start. 08:27 They just drilled it with a chisel and a hammer and blew the 08:32 big stands down over the side of the cliff to the sea. When 08:36 they did this they made all the side of the coast bare because 08:41 they'd pushed the grass, the scrubs and everything off 08:43 and all the rubble went down to the beach. It was pretty hairy. 08:46 Nothing to stop your view between the road and the beach. 08:51 Now these fellows 08:52 who were blasting really upset their mates because a lot 08:56 of them were shell shocked and they'd just come out of the 08:59 trenches and when the blasting went off around the road it 09:04 really upset them. The challenges they had when 09:07 they were making the road was mainly the terrain they had to 09:11 work in. Because it was right along the cliff face of the 09:15 mountains that went right down to the sea and they had to tie 09:19 themself to trees and lower themself down on the rocks, dig 09:23 a hole to stand upright and the digger that was beside him did 09:29 the same and then they dug a track between the two and that's 09:32 how it all started. When they got around to the road a bit 09:36 there's a couple of old farmers and they said to the farmers 09:39 would you like to contribute just a few bob to build the 09:44 road and they said look we haven't got two bobs but we'll 09:48 work on the road for a mile in this area for nothing. 09:52 And that's what they did, these farmers. That was the type of 09:56 patriotism they had building the Great Ocean Road. All the little 10:01 towns and villages along the Great Ocean Road ran dancers and 10:06 different things to make money to pay the diggers because they 10:09 knew it was to their advantage that they could have a beautiful 10:13 road, this Great Ocean Road, that would give them free access 10:17 to their village. Now this Great Ocean Road is not only a 10:23 memorial to those who dug it but it was a memorial to the fallen 10:27 in the First World War. 10:30 The Great Ocean Road has been called Australia's largest war 10:34 memorial. Many visitors to the Great Ocean Road don't know the 10:39 history of how it was constructed and why the 10:42 construction of this road is so special. 10:47 They built the Great Ocean Road because it was to open up all 10:50 the little settlements around the Otway coast. Prior to the 10:54 Great Ocean Road being built they were all landlocked 10:58 depending on the weather. Once the Great Ocean Road was built 11:03 it gave them access right through to wherever they wanted 11:06 to go. The Great Ocean Road was built in 1919 started. It was a 11:12 concept of the Minister of the Lands and the Minister for 11:17 Repatriation to give the returning diggers a job. 11:21 Three thousand men worked on the road, mostly returned diggers. 11:24 They had foremen who kept them on the job. They lived very, 11:35 well. They were paid ten and six a day where they come out of 11:39 the trenches at five bob a day and they were really well off. 11:45 It took about 12 years for all through, 12 or 13 years, to 11:52 complete the road right through from Torquay right through to 11:58 Allansford which was near Warrnambool. Now a lot of the 12:02 road was in pure rock and that's where the tough bit came. One 12:08 particular place is called Mount Defiance and that really defied 12:12 them because it was pure rock. The rest of the road a lot of it 12:16 was aggregate which was pick and shovel work and that's all 12:20 they had basically was pick and shovel and horses and scoops 12:25 and wheelbarrows and they had to do it all by muscle. Well I was 12:33 born here in 1922, lived here all my life, except I was in the 12:39 army for four years, most of it in the Solomon Islands. And it's 12:45 a lovely place here because we got this Great Ocean Road that 12:49 we can move about on. Every bend you come around is a different 12:54 view and you got the rolling surf and the moods of the sea 12:58 changes. So it's an ever changing vista and it's 13:03 beautiful all the way around. 13:07 You think around 80 percent of the world's population is only 13:11 an hour or two from the coast line of an ocean, lake or river. 13:16 There's something about water that draws us and fascinates us. 13:20 Our human bodies are about 70 percent water and they say 13:25 that the water in ourselves is comparable to that found in the 13:29 oceans. The ocean delights, inspires and intimidates us. 13:34 When we 13:35 think of the Great Ocean Road we may think that the word 13:39 great applies to the road construction. While the history 13:43 and meaning of the construction of the road is important, it is 13:47 the ocean that provides the meaning of the word great. 13:51 We're surrounded by water and along with air it's the primary 13:56 ingredient for supporting life. Water covers more than 70 14:01 percent of the earth's surface and 96 percent of all of this 14:05 water on earth is found in the oceans. In fact it's so vast 14:11 we've only explored five percent of our world's oceans. From one 14:16 million kilometers away our planet resembles a small blue 14:20 marble. Author Arthur C. Clarke once commented How inappropriate 14:27 to call this planet earth when it's quite clearly ocean. 14:32 Surfers are a constant presence along the Great Ocean Road with 14:42 world champion surfing events held at Bells Beach every Easter 14:46 Since the 1960s surfers have flocked to Bells Beach. In 1973, 14:54 the Easter event became Australia's first pro surfing 14:58 contest. Surfers have an intimate connection with the 15:03 ocean and many surfers have tried to articulate the feeling 15:06 of riding the power of the sea. Pioneer of big wave surfing 15:13 Buzzy Trent said one of the most famous lines in surfing surfers. 15:24 An element of greatness is power and along the Great Ocean Road 15:29 the ocean and bush that are so beautiful also have the power to 15:35 make us afraid. The dramatic seascapes and spectacular 15:45 scenery hide a dark secret because not only is this stretch 15:49 of coastline among the most beautiful in the world, it is 15:53 also by far the most rugged, hostile and treacherous 15:58 coastline in the world. Cape Otway light station is the 16:05 oldest lighthouse on the Australian mainland. It has 16:09 operated continuously since 1848. Before Bass Strait was 16:14 discovered by Matthew Flinders around 1799 ships had to sail 16:19 around Tasmania taking an extra week to 10 days. But sailing the 16:24 waters between King and Flinders Islands and the mainland is 16:29 still treacherous. During the early years of European 16:37 settlement over 500 sailing ships were wrecked along this 16:42 coast. In fact, over 80 ships were lost between Cape Otway 16:47 and Port Fairy alone. So this section of the coast can well be 16:53 called the Shipwreck Coast. Virtually all of these 16:58 shipwrecks occurred in a period of about 30 years between 17:04 the mid 1800s and the early 1900s. Most of these ships sank 17:09 at night or in a howling storm. In the Bass Strait the mighty 17:16 Southern Ocean is forced through a passage merely 90 km wide and 17:21 onto the continental shelf where the sea bottom becomes 17:25 relatively shallow. In these parts the wind blows and swells 17:31 of 10 to 20 meters aren't rare. The 86 gypsum steps lead to the 17:41 beach here at the foot of the 12 Apostles. The cliffs tower 70 17:46 meters above me and I can see large rocks at the base of the 17:51 cliffs that have fallen before. The view of the sea here fills 17:56 the horizon. The waves don't whisper here but roar onto the 18:01 sand. It's a wild place. It's a beautiful place and I'm a little 18:06 bit frightened at how small I feel. All this great power and 18:11 beauty fills me with an important emotion, Awe. 18:16 Recent research tells me that feeling awe like this is good 18:23 for me. In the upper reaches of pleasure and on the boundary of 18:27 fear is an important emotion, Awe. Awe is an overwhelming 18:33 feeling of reverence, admiration or fear produced by something 18:40 grand, sublime or extremely powerful. Recent research has 18:45 shown that when we feel awe we are more likely to feel a 18:49 greater connection with others, to feel part of something than 18:53 ourselves. Researchers have demonstrated that even watching 18:59 a five minute clip of vast natural beauty like the Great 19:03 Ocean Road helped people feel awe and changed their behavior. 19:10 It's not clear why this area is called the 12 apostles. 19:13 There's never been 12 rock pillars and constant pounding by 19:17 the Great Southern Ocean means that some of the current pillars 19:21 are very fragile. Perhaps the name was used by the locals 19:27 because awe is central to the experience of religion and when 19:31 this view took their breath away they could only liken it to a 19:36 spiritual experience. Research shows that those who experienced 19:43 awe in their tests were less likely to cheat or take money 19:46 that wasn't theirs. And apparently it doesn't take much 19:49 even just 60 seconds of looking at an amazing view such as this 19:55 is enough for us to experience awe. My entire journey along the 20:01 Great Ocean Road has filled me with awe from remembering the 20:07 great sacrifice of the 3000 returned World War I soldiers 20:12 who built this road in memory of their fallen mates to 20:16 remembering the great sacrifice of the fire fighters who saved 20:21 families in the Christmas day bush fires. And now I stand here 20:26 with other visitors, one of the millions of people who visit the 20:31 Great Ocean Road to soak in the awesome wonder and my soul is 20:39 singing: 20:41 ♪ ♪ 21:39 Yes, we've just completed one of the world's great coastal drives 21:44 It's the journey of a lifetime. A journey through some of the 21:47 most exciting, enchanting and exquisitely different landscapes 21:52 in Australia. But as well as being an iconic tourist 21:57 destination, the Great Ocean Road plays a deeper more 22:00 spiritual role. It's a reminder that we're all on a journey, the 22:04 greatest journey, the journey of life. And there's a spiritual 22:09 aspect to this journey. One of the most helpful ways of 22:15 thinking about the Christian life is to see it as a journey. 22:17 This is a theme that runs through the Bible. The Bible 22:22 tells of the 40-year journey of the people of Israel from Egypt 22:27 to the promised land. It tells of Abraham setting out in faith 22:32 to leave the land of his ancestors and journey to a place 22:38 chosen by God. He didn't know where he was going but he did 22:41 know who he would be traveling with and that was enough for 22:46 him. One of the earliest terms used to refer to Christians was 22:51 those who belong to the Way. They were seen as traveling on 22:57 their way to the eternal city. Thinking of the Christian life 23:00 as a journey through the world offers a helpful and vivid way 23:05 to visualizing the life of faith It reminds us that we are going 23:12 somewhere. Not just anywhere. We're on our way to our eternal 23:16 home. It encourages us to think ahead and look forward with 23:22 anticipation to the joy of arrival. One day we shall 23:28 finally see our Lord face to face. If you would like to start 23:34 that journey why not make that decision right now as we pray. 23:40 Dear Heavenly Father, today we have made a journey along one 23:45 of the great coastal roads. The natural beauty, the costal 23:51 scenery, the history and heritage have filled us with 23:54 awe and wonder. We've also been reminded of our journey through 24:00 life and our spiritual pilgrimage. Please give us 24:04 courage and assurance as we journey towards our eternal home 24:09 and grant us the privilege of seeing you face to face. We ask 24:14 this in Jesus' name, Amen. 24:19 ♪ How Great Thou Art ♪ 25:16 Our journey along the Great Ocean Road fills us with awe and 25:22 wonder but it also plays a deeper more spiritual role. 25:25 It reminds us that we are all on a journey, the greatest journey, 25:30 the journey of life. And there's a spiritual aspect to this 25:34 journey. One of the most helpful ways of thinking about the 25:38 Christian life is to see it as a journey. This is a theme that 25:45 runs through the Bible. If you'd like to start this spiritual 25:48 journey I'd like to recommend a free gift we have for all our 25:52 views today. It's a book called Steps to Christ. It covers 25:57 topics such as God's love for man, repentance, faith 26:01 and acceptance 26:03 and what to do with doubt. I'm sure this book will bring you 26:07 closer to Jesus on your spiritual journey. Remember to 26:12 ask for your free copy of Steps to Christ by name. There's 26:15 no cost or obligation. Steps to Christ is absolutely free. 26:20 Here's the information you need: Phone us now on 0481315101 or 26:31 text us on 0491222999 or visit our website: 26:39 theincrediblejourney.tv to request today's free offer. 26:43 So don't delay, phone us now on 0481315101 or text us on 26:54 0491222999 or visit our website theincrediblejourney.tv 27:02 to request today's free offer. So don't delay. Contact us right 27:07 now. If you've enjoyed today's journey be sure to join us again 27:18 next week when we will share another of life's journeys 27:20 together and experience another new and thought provoking 27:25 perspective on the peace, insight, understanding and hope 27:29 that only the Bible can give us. The Incredible Journey truly is 27:34 television that changes lives. Until next week remember the 27:40 ultimate destination of life's journey. Now I saw a new 27:43 heaven and a new earth and God will wipe away every tear from 27:48 their eyes. There shall be no more death nor sorrow nor crying 27:52 There shall be no more pain for the former things have passed 27:56 away. 27:58 ♪ ♪ |
Revised 2020-09-17