Australia's top wonder

The 12 Apostles are leading the charge to be Australia's nomination for a search to name the new Seven Wonders of Nature...

The Great Ocean Road icon leads the Great Barrier Reef as the natural wonder to take the one spot allowed for Australia in the worldwide search.
 
The competition is being run by the New7Wonders organisation, which ran a vote last year to elect the new Seven Wonders of the World, attracting more than 100 million votes globally for people's favourite man-made sites.
 
The Twelve Apostles are located along the spectacular Great Ocean Road. They were originally named the 'Sow and Piglets'.

Located near Loch Ard Gorge, the Sow was Muttonbird Island, with the piglets being the smaller surrounding rocks.

At first glance the Twelve Apostles may not appear to be 12 apostles. From the lookout, you can only see a number of the twelve apostles. The others are located behind the rocky headlands that line the Victoria coastline, or hidden by other rocky outcrops.

The Twelve Apostles were formed by erosion of the original coastline. The constant action of the sea on the limestone slowly wore down the rocky cliff, gradually leaving individual rocks.

The cliff is still being eroded at a rate of about two cm each year, and in the future is likely to form more 'Apostles' from the other rocky headlands that line the Victorian coastline.

Australia's other registered nominations include Uluru (Northern Territory), Fraser Island (Queensland), Kakadu (Northern Territory), the Pinnacles (Western Australia), the Blue Mountains (New South Wales), the Bungle Bungles (Western Australia), Cradle Mountain (Tasmania), Flinders Ranges (South Australia), the Australian Alps, Australia's Green Cauldron, Australia's Coastal Wilderness and Queensland's Great Barrier Reef.
 
Source: www.australia.com/promotions/7wonders