THE devastating impact of the coronavirus pandemic has brought the community of a Great Ocean Road tourist town closer.
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Port Campbell has been hard-hit by the disappearance of international travellers who usually fill the seaside town's restaurants, cafes and shops.
With that market out of reach for the foreseeable future, the tight-knit community is re-imagining how it wants to experience tourism in the future.
A small wooden beach toy library, built by the people of Port Campbell, is symbolic of this coming together.
"Someone said wouldn't it be great to have a beach toy library here, and then we had a cupboard repurposed by one of the local restaurants, toys donated by locals who love op shopping and my dad who is a handy woodworker retrofitted and painted it," said Port Campbell resident Kylie Treble. "The community took it upon themselves to build the library."
"Often young families have a lot of paraphernalia that comes with them - this can be one less thing to have to carry from a parental perspective.
"For children who visit the beach it can be a good learning curve to introduce them to new toys but to know they have to be respected and they have to be returned.
"The borrow-lending lesson is really valuable from an environmental perspective too."
Port Campbell has long had a complicated relationship with tourism: on the one hand, tourists support local business, but the other side of the coin is that before the pandemic, busloads of tourists were overwhelming and spoiling the relaxed coastal atmosphere of the town.
About 6.1 million international and domestic tourists travelled the road in the year to March 2019, those from China making up the biggest portion with 680,000 visitors in that time.
Estimated visitor numbers to Twelve Apostles were 277,220 in December 2019 and 154,225 in February this year before the pandemic hit and wiped international visitation.
During peak times visitation to the Apostles averaged 15,000 a day.
"I think Port Campbell is a community who have such a diversity in tourist exposure and with COVID to have that all dramatically taken away I think has really united the community to help each other out," Ms Treble said.
"This project is just one of those ways.
"Everyone's really had their incomes stripped bare and this little project provides something a little bit different, it shows we're a community thinking of other people not just those in our immediate sphere.
"We would love to have tourists that are conscientious of the space they're coming in to in terms of the environment and national park that surrounds Port Campbell.
"The environment is already tenuous with erosion and other issues, we don't need tourists to exacerbate or add problems in that regard.
"It would be fantastic to see tourists respecting a space they are visiting and we're hopeful we can continue to convey that message."
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