Where does the Great Ocean Road actually begin? It sounds like an easy question — the iconic coastal drive is one of Australia's most photographed routes — but it trips up plenty of travellers, and a new travel quiz from the Sydney Morning Herald's Traveller puts readers to the test on exactly that.

The short answer: the road officially starts at Torquay, a surf-mad town about 100 kilometres southwest of Melbourne, and runs to Allansford near Warrnambool, covering roughly 243 kilometres of clifftops, beach towns and rainforest. Many visitors assume it begins in Geelong or further along the coast at Lorne, which is part of why the quiz question works. Torquay is also home to Bells Beach, the famous surf break that anchors the Rip Curl Pro each Easter, so it's a worthwhile stop rather than just a signpost.

What makes this drive special is its backstory. The Great Ocean Road was built by returned soldiers after World War I as a memorial to fallen comrades, making it the world's largest war memorial — a fact that surprises most people who come purely for the scenery. The route's headline act is the Twelve Apostles, the limestone stacks rising from the Southern Ocean near Port Campbell, best visited early morning or late afternoon when the light softens and the tour buses thin out.

Beyond the Apostles, the drive packs in quieter rewards: koala-spotting at Kennett River, the fern gullies of the Otway Ranges, the dramatic London Arch formation, and whale watching off Warrnambool between June and September when southern right whales calve close to shore. Most travellers drive it west to east or east to west in a long day, but stretching it over two or three nights turns it into a proper road trip with time for the small towns — Lorne, Apollo Bay, Port Fairy — that give the coast its character.

For anyone planning an Australian trip, this quiz is a handy prompt. It's a light read, but it flags the practical detail that matters most on the ground: knowing where the road starts shapes your whole itinerary, from car hire out of Melbourne to where you book your overnight stays. Get the geography right and the drive becomes far easier to plan — and far less rushed than the day-trip crowd makes it look.