Former Sovereign Hill director Peter Hiscock told The Standard that a Loch Ard interpretative centre would enhance tourism to the region and better inform visitors of the south-west's maritime history.

Mr Hiscock wrote in a secret Corangamite Shire feasibility study back in August 2002 that he "found it hard to support any of the sites" mooted for an interpretative centre near Port Campbell.

The sites proposed in the eight-year-old report include the Port Campbell town centre, Beacon Point and the old water tower on the eastern side of town.

Mr Hiscock said a centre close to the Loch Ard Gorge would be an ideal proposal and was opposed to it being located in the Port Campbell town centre.

"If there is going to be an interpretive centre on the Great Ocean Road then there needs to be sufficient government investment," he said.

"The point of such a centre is to be an extension of the tourist attraction, so if it was located too far away from the site of the historical event, its historical referencing becomes lost in translation.

"I think there is now a need for such a centre (because) tourist numbers have risen quite substantially along the Great Ocean Road to warrant such a large investment."

The feasibility study also suggested:

* The interpretive centre's floorspace would be 3880 square metres - equivalent to the size of Warrnambool's Harris Scarfe store;

* A car park on the site would have more than 320 car parks and could accommodate 12 buses;

* The number of visitors to Port Campbell would double by the end of the decade on 2002 figures.

Port Campbell restaurant owner Michael Hunt last month urged the council to ensure the centre was built in the town so that businesses would benefit.

Corangamite Shire chief executive Paul Younis has indicated Loch Ard Gorge is the favoured site for the centre but Parks Victoria has stated that no decision had been made.