The iconic Great Ocean Road was temporarily shut down in both directions between Lorne and Skenes Creek this morning. The closure facilitated the safe removal of flood-damaged vehicles from beaches and riverbanks.

A Black Hawk helicopter was deployed to airlift the vehicles from the shoreline and the mouths of the Cumberland and Wye Rivers.

“Approximately a dozen vehicles were scattered across the rocks, ocean, and beach,” stated Chris Longmore, the operations manager for SES Victoria. “With the help of an expert salvage team, we managed to airlift them using a helicopter.”

In total, a dozen vehicles and several caravan chassis were successfully recovered from the Cumberland River area, and two vehicles were retrieved from Wye River, according to Longmore.

However, one caravan chassis remains embedded in the sand at Cumberland River and could not be recovered.

“We’ll work with local land managers around what they would like to do around further recovery if that’s a viable option,” Longmore said.

Most of the extricated vehicles were dropped in the car park of the Cumberland River Holiday Park and have since been taken to a car yard, where owners can make further assessments.

Families were forced to scramble to higher ground as cars and caravans were swept out to sea by fast-moving rapids.

The recovery effort was supported by a marine salvage crew who helped rig and secure the vehicles to be hoisted.

Longmore said authorities liaised with traditional owners and local land managers to decide how to extricate the vehicles.

”We looked at a range of options in terms of how to best recover those vehicles… we looked at sea we looked at land and we looked at air,” Longmore said.

“Air was deemd the gratest option due to our ability to impact as least as possible the land and the ocean environment that exists here at Cumberland River and Wye River.”

The Great Ocean Road has since reopened to traffic.