The announcement on May 13, re-opened a number of parks and reserves to the public, but the Great Ocean Road icon is closed in an attempt to limit the spread of coronavirus and abide by guidelines.

Despite the closure, locked gates, barrier and additional signage, police issued 25 fines at the lookout last weekend.

Corangamite shire mayor Neil Trotter said the public must respect the decision of Parks Victoria.

"We'd like to see it opened as quickly as possible but we don't want to have outbreaks here," he said.

"The Twelve Apostles (platform) would probably be difficult to enforce physical distancing rules.

"Our region has been so good and we don't want to jeopardise the future openings.

"We don't want to go one step forwards and then two steps back."

Corangamite councillor and Port Campbell resident Simon Illingworth has seen first-hand the impact of the coronavirus pandemic but is urging people to stay home.

"As far as council goes, we have to leave the decision in the hands of Parks," he said.

"With the tight viewing areas, you'd be hard stretched to be 1.5 metres apart.

"We all want businesses to re-open, this has run our town into the ground.

"People have done the right thing for a long time but if this goes bad, it will skyrocket.

"A second lock down would be detrimental."

The $1652 fines were issued to a range of Australian, German and French tourists across the weekend, with 11 on Saturday alone.

Locked gates and building site barriers did little to dissuade the tourists booked on Saturday but additional electronic signage at Geelong and Lorne appeared to make a difference with only four people fined on Sunday.

Listen to the latest episode of our weekly episode The Booletin and Beyond:

Have you signed up to The Standard's daily newsletter and breaking news emails? You can register below and make sure you are up to date with everything that's happening in the south-west.