Just off the tip of the Bellarine Peninsula, this coastal village boasts a tight-knit community, rich marine life, and an unmissable view atop the historic lighthouse.
In our crowdsourced history of Point Lonsdale, locals and holidaymakers remember the search for Harold Holt, Roddy the Lighthouse keeper, and Buckley's Cave:
Peter kicks us off and takes us back to "travelling to Point Lonsdale in the early 70s in the back of my Aunty Ida's brown Cortina from Lalor. A picnic lunch under the big pine trees , swimming and exploring the old WW11 bunkers was a regular jaunt. Life was bliss then."
Same goes for Sarah, who "spent 2 weeks each summer from age 0-16 at Point Lonsdale during the late 60s to early 80s. Early on we stayed in a house called Tennessee in Kirk Road, and my cousins and thought it was haunted. I remember running down the exposed sand dunes to the ocean beach, which was so much fun for a 6 year old. But now so glad they have been preserved by being closed off. And we always wanted an ice cream from the Top Shop after a busy day on the front beach."
Jeremy says "Stoney's dad was the lighthouse keeper. The foghorn was epic!"
Phil agrees — he says "Bring back the fog horn!"
Bonny "spent her teenage years in Geelong and was astonished when my grandma insisted we visit the Pt Lonsdale cemetery. She wept as she identified about a dozen relatives, some of them children, and further told us our family owned the Queenscliff pub at one time! A shock and delight."
Caroline brings us back to more recent history — "I was married at the lighthouse and reception at the guest house, in winter."
Ashley loved his summers in Point Lonsdale: "As a Ballarat boy I am fortunate that my parents had a caravan at the Beacon caravan park in Point Lonsdale (the longest serving tenants of the park). Fond memories of the community in the caravan park — groups of kids making teams to play cricket, games of chases with kids of all ages running and hiding, collect bottles and getting 20 cents to pay space invaders, play the jukebox or get a bag of lollies, banging bin lids on New Year's Eve, Santa coming around the park on Christmas Day on the fire truck, the big twisty slide, grazing my knees skateboarding on the wizzy dizzy. Smiles, families, sunscreen and fun. So good, we have the caravan I will be back there next week, reliving my childhood summer."
Michael's parents fell in love with Point Lonsdale during a UK visit "in 1994 — my parents came out from the UK to visit me. They travelled all around Australia but their best memory was in Point Lonsdale. While walking down the pier, we saw a fisherman pull up a 2 metre gummy shark which landed at my father's feet. He talked about it until the day he died. Quite a memory for us all."
Armin in Rye remembers: "Around 2006 I was asked to help an Afghan refugee with an IT degree by providing him with some work. He had spent 4 years in Baxter detention centre and wonderful woman from Pt Lonsdale campaigned for his release. She was one of the so called Baxter Mums. Fahim worked for me for a couple of years before he asked for some help to bring his 3 young children here. They had been stuck In a Pakistan camp waiting to be reunited. The Pt Lonsdale and Queenscliff.community had embraced Fahim and his kids as their special project. A few years later I was privileged to attend his naturalisation ceremony in the Pt Lonsdale community hall which was filled to capacity. His family was the only one being naturalised that day. He and his kids came in traditional Afghan dress. It was the most moving thing I have witnessed and I was proud of all that he had worked through, with a little help from this amazing Pt Lonsdale community. I balled my eyes out."
Another anonymous texter: "We spent every summer as kids at Point Lonsdale in the 70s, back when it was truly great. Fibro cement or weatherboard bungalows; sandy streets; the smells of mozzie coils and Aerogard; riding bush-bikes everywhere unsupervised and finding out whether the Top Shop, the Middle Shop or the Bottom Shop was the cool place to hang out each year. Honeycomb Crunch ice creams were always the best after a full day at the beach swimming, bodyboarding, wobble boards, beach cricket, or checking out rock pools. Man, we were so lucky back then."
Heather: "Great Aunty Ena's beach house. Burying shark heads in back yard. Blue ice cream cones. Fairy walks through the tea trees. Rock pools. Buckley's cave and bunkers. Ahh summer in the 70s."
Drive with Raf Epstein wants to uncover in to the 'real' history of iconic Melbourne spots by hearing your stories.
If you have a great suggestion of a location for us to delve in to, email us on melbournedrive@abc.net.au