Among the many natural attractions in Australia - Uluru, the Great Barrier Reef, Kakadu National Park - the Twelve Apostles of Victoria stand out with their majestic and rugged grandeur. These massive limestone cliffs, formed over millennia by waves crashing against the shore, are pictured in a new 2023 photo. Royal Australian Mint $5 in colored silver domed coin.

 

The First Nations people of Australia probably had their name for what we now call the Twelve Apostles, the towering limestone outcrops on Victoria's south coast. These magnificent columns were formed over thousands of years by erosion and waves crashing against the shore, constantly eroding the softer limestone.

 

There have never been more than eight apostles at the site since European settlement, and now only seven after the collapse of one pile in 2005. How exactly they became the twelve apostles is still a bit of a mystery. English explorer George Bass named them sow and piglets. Others called them Pinnacles. The preserved name - Twelve Apostles - appeared in 1880. The Twelve Apostles has steadily become a major tourist hotspot, especially after the 1919-1932 the returning military built the Great Ocean Road. It is now Victoria's most visited natural site.