Breakwater

Breakwater is an industrial and residential suburb south-east of central Geelong, extending from the Geelong showground to the Barwon River. If Fellmongers Road is taken as the middle of Breakwater, it is 3 km from Ryrie Street, Geelong.

The name came about from a breakwater built across the Barwon River for Geelong’s water supply in 1845, to stop the tidal inflow of salt water from marshlands near the mouth of the Barwon. The structure was superseded in 1874 by an alternative water supply and was incorporated in the Breakwater Road crossing over the river.