Send flowers to Torquay and the Surf Coast

This is Torquay, Victoria, not the one in Devon: the town at the start of the Great Ocean Road, 21 kilometres south of Geelong and 97 kilometres from Melbourne, home of Bells Beach and the place where Rip Curl began in a surfboard shop in 1967. With 18,534 residents at the 2021 census it is the largest town in Surf Coast Shire and the council's seat, and it swells well beyond that every summer holiday. Flowers here go to young families in the new estates, to retirees by the front beach and to holiday houses where the recipient may only be in town for the weekend, which is worth knowing before you order.

Where we deliver on the Surf Coast

Delivery covers Torquay, the growth areas of Torquay North and Spring Creek, Jan Juc and Bells Beach, Bellbrae in the hinterland and Mount Duneed on the road to Geelong. Anglesea and Aireys Inlet further along the Great Ocean Road are served as well, though an address that far out may be delivered later in the run or on the next working day. For a holiday house, give the street number clearly, a mobile number and the days the recipient is actually there; a bouquet left on a veranda in a January northerly will not last the afternoon. For the farms and lifestyle blocks around Bellbrae and Freshwater Creek, add the property name.

Same-day delivery and the Victorian cut-off

Same-day delivery is available Monday to Saturday when the order is placed before 2pm on a weekday or 10am on a Saturday, Victorian time. There is no delivery on Sundays. Victoria is on daylight saving from the first Sunday in October to the first Sunday in April, so if you are ordering from Queensland in summer you are an hour behind Torquay and your deadline is 1pm; from Perth it is 11am in summer and noon in winter. Ordering from overseas, place the order the evening before and choose the date.

Hospitals: Geelong, twenty minutes up the road

Torquay patients are usually in Geelong. University Hospital Geelong, run by Barwon Health, is at 272-322 Ryrie Street, Geelong 3220; St John of God Geelong Hospital is at 80 Myers Street, Geelong; and Epworth Geelong, the closest to Torquay, is at 1 Epworth Place, Waurn Ponds 3216. Phone the ward before you buy, because intensive care and some other wards do not accept fresh flowers; give the patient's full name and the ward, and if the patient is about to come home to Torquay, send the flowers there instead.

Rip Curl Pro, Easter and the flower days

The Rip Curl Pro Bells Beach, the longest-running event on the world surfing tour, has its 64th edition from 25 March to 4 April 2027, a waiting period around Easter in which heats run only on days with good surf. The town is full that fortnight, so order a day or two ahead. Mother's Day is Sunday 9 May 2027; bouquets go out on Saturday 8 May with the 10am cut-off. Father's Day is Sunday 5 September 2027, again delivered on the Saturday. Valentine's Day, 14 February, falls at the height of the holiday season, when Torquay's population is at its largest and its roads at their slowest, so order early. On Anzac Day, 25 April, the tradition is rosemary and a wreath rather than a bouquet.

Cool-climate flowers on the Surf Coast

Torquay has an oceanic climate, with an average January maximum of 22 degrees, a July maximum of 13 and about 660 millimetres of rain a year. Flowers last well here, even in summer, as long as they are kept out of the wind. Spring (September to November) brings sweet pea, ranunculus, proteas and lisianthus, with peonies in November; summer (December to February) roses, lisianthus, gerberas, delphiniums and dahlias; autumn (March to May) chrysanthemums, tulips, iris, proteas and leucadendron; and winter (June to August) tulips, daffodils, stock, ranunculus and native bunches.

Sympathy flowers and cemeteries on the Surf Coast

The cemeteries serving Torquay are run by the Geelong Cemeteries Trust: Mount Duneed and Grovedale on the road to Geelong, Barrabool Hills in the hinterland, and Geelong Eastern Cemetery at 141 Ormond Road, East Geelong, where the trust has its office. Service flowers are best arranged two or three days ahead through the funeral director or a florist near the chapel. Delivery to the service itself is never guaranteed, so give the family's home as a second address; a sympathy bouquet sent there in the quiet weeks afterwards is always appreciated.

Prices

Bouquets start from AUD 75; larger arrangements, roses by the dozen and native bunches cost more. Delivery is charged at checkout and a card with your message is included with every order.

Did you know? Did you know? Rip Curl was founded in Torquay in 1967, and the Rip Curl Pro at Bells Beach is run on a waiting period so that heats are held only on days with good surf.