What is Geelong known for?
Geelong is Victoria's second-largest city, on Corio Bay. It is known for its waterfront, painted bollards, the Geelong Cats AFL team and wool history.
The waterfront has a beach, a carousel and the Eastern Beach swimming enclosure. The Baywalk Bollards are over 100 painted wooden figures showing local characters.
Geelong grew as a wool port, and the National Wool Museum tells that story. The Ford factory closed in 2016, ending a long era of car making.
Sport and coast
The Geelong Cats play at Kardinia Park, known as GMHBA Stadium. The city is a gateway to the Bellarine Peninsula and the Great Ocean Road.
Deakin University has a campus on the waterfront. A ferry links Geelong to Melbourne's Docklands.
Geelong is a fast-growing city with around 300,000 people in the wider region. It has a busy port that exports grain and imports fuel. The city's Botanic Gardens, founded in 1851, sit near the waterfront. The Geelong Gallery holds an important collection of colonial Australian art. Many people commute to Melbourne by train, which takes about an hour.
Did You Know?
Geelong was named a UNESCO City of Design in 2017.