The brainchild of Wollongong Tourism manager Greg Binskin, Grand Pacific Drive stretches from the Royal National Park south of Sydney along the coast to Bomaderry, traversing the Sea Cliff Bridge in the process.

The 140km drive ends when Bolong Road meets the Princes Highway, but information of Grand Pacific Drive attempts to link visitors with other destinations in the region including Jervis Bay, the rest of the South Coast and Far South Coast, the Southern Highlands and the Canberra region.

Shoalhaven Tourism manager Tom Phillips said the drive and an international marketing strategy was a couple of years in the making, appealing to visitors from overseas by showing off a unique and scenic part of Australia.

Mr Phillips took his cousin, the Irish Ombudsman Emily O’Reilly, on the drive recently and “she was blown away by it”.

In fact Ms O’Reilly thought she would just about have been in Melbourne by the end of the drive, and was amazed to see how small a distance on the Australian map she had actually covered.

While the drive had predominantly been aimed at international visitors, Mr Phillips said it was also aimed at the domestic self-drive and minibus market.

Signs were still being put up to mark the drive, with one of the first signs erected in Nowra, beside the Princes Highway’s north-bound lanes, directing people to Nowra’s tourist information centre.

Mr Phillips said information centres along the route had material about the drive, the attractions along the way, and other areas that could be visited.