Photo: Angela Milne/ The Age

A forklift was an angel in disguise for a Chinese tourist trapped under a bus on Victoria's famous Great Ocean Road this week.

The Age newspaper reported the bus was travelling south on Princeton Road, about 10km north of the Twelve Apostles, when it overturned.

Police said the bus skidded out of control on a right-hand bend before hitting an embankment on the other side of the road and overturning.

A dairy farmer helped free a passenger whose arm was trapped by moving the bus with a forklift.

Initially Rod Lindsay used a tractor but could not move the bus.

"That didn't work very well, so myself and another guy up the road used a forklift to lift the bus up and get the bloke's arm out," Lindsay said.

"People were running around everywhere. I just couldn't understand anyone, which was the hardest."

The 28 passengers were Chinese Government employees on an educational trip.