Echuca

Friday 7th November 2014
We left Bendigo reasonably early and paid a visit to the Bendigo Pottery factory. We had a very interesting look around the place, but didn’t find anything to buy, so headed north stopping at Rochester for lunch. We finally arrived at the inland port of Echuca. We thought we would check out where our accommodation was and saw it was in a very nice development. It looked like a nice place to stay. We knocked on the door to announce our arrival, only to be told “we were expecting you yesterday!!!” OOPS!!! We messed up the booking!! They were fully booked for the night so were unable to offer us anything, so we were directed to the Tourist Information Centre, who were very helpful and found us something in Moama, which is the sister city across the river in New South Wales. As it turned out it was a very new place and although our initial reaction wasn’t good, our accommodation was excellent and very spacious. So we off loaded our luggage and went into Echuca to explore, especially the Paddle steamers for which Echuca is famous.

Now, for Zac and Mich. – this is the sort of transport Grandpa used to get around on.

The last photo shows the Moama beach and also the bridge joining the two cities. The one before that is the river next to our accommodation. It was quite a warm day, but we wandered down the street and through the old historic Harbour which is a lot different to what it was 30 years ago when I was last here. We then had a bottomless cup of coffee in the popular Beechworth bakery, with some coupons the lady at our original accommodation gave us.
Next morning we were a bit late and so missed out on a paddle steamer ride as we needed to leave for our next destination, however we did note that there were many houseboats for hire and maybe one day we can organize to get our family together for a sail down the Murray River.

read comments (0)

Bendigo

Thursday 6th November 2014
Before we left Maldon for Bendigo this morning we drove to the top of Mt. Tarrangarro to the lookout over the town and Laurie climbed the tower which allowed him to see up to 100kms away.

We then headed north through Porcupine Flat to Bendigo getting there around lunch time. After parking the car we checked out where we’re staying for the night – the historical grand Shamrock Hotel right in the heart of the city, where famous people such as Dame Nellie Melba and Prince Charles and Princess Diana among many others have stayed.

We saw a photo of the royal couple on the stairs above. We decided to take a trip on the tourist tram and stopped off to visit the largest tram workshop in the Southern Hemisphere where they repair and restore old trams. It was a very interesting tour and we saw some remarkable workmanship go into the restoration. We rejoined the tram and went to see the Chinese Joss House which was built by the Chinese during the initial Goldrush years and is still used by some Chinese families today. A Joss House is where the three major Asian religions come together for worshipping without any antagonism towards one another unlike some other religions.

After the tram tour we just meandered around the beautiful parks and visited the catholic cathedral and War Memorial. We thought Bendigo was a very attractive city and possibly worth another trip sometime.

read comments (0)

The goldfields tour

Tuesday 4th November 2014
We decided to have a few days holiday away and to do a tour of the central goldfields area of Victoria. After a late start we headed off and made good progress, eventually coming to Macedon, where we decided to detour and go up to the top of the mountain. The drive up the mountain is very scenic, with magnificent old gardens filled with azaleas and Rhodadendrums, providing a blaze of colours. At the top we stopped and had an early lunch in the restaurant, then walked to the huge WW1 Memorial which has been significantly developed and landscaped since we last saw it 20 years ago.

After taking in the views we drove to Woodend which we were quite taken with, especially as it was so green. Maybe we will have to revisit this town again one day. Kyneton was next on the route and Malmesbury, where we detoured and went across to Daylesford, well known for its natural mineral springs. However we didn’t partake and headed on to Hepburn Springs and then onto Shepherd’s Flat where we stopped off at the Lavender Farm. This was started by an Italian family some 120 years ago. We decided to sample the lavender scones, but were not overly impressed with the taste! They also put lavender in Jill’s English Breakfast tea and she thought it was yuk!! As it was getting a bit late and we still had a distance to cover, we headed for Newstead and then on to Maldon which was our destination for the night. There we were booked into a quaint 1950’s style motel which even had a Home Beautiful magazine dated March 1961 which cost 2 shillings and six pence in the room. The decor was as in the 50/60’s era.

The real reason we were in Maldon however was because Laurie was given a 70th birthday present from the children of an overnight stay in Maldon and a ride on a real steam engine!
So next day we were up bright and early and off to the nearby Maldon Station where we booked our first class tickets to Castlemaine, with Laurie riding in the engine with the driver and firemen!! What an experience!! It was dirty, hot, noisy and absolutely beautiful!!

On the return journey we travelled in the first class saloon, enjoying our complimentary cheese platter and a glass of champagne!

In the afternoon we went back to Castlemaine again to have a good look around and then over to Maryborough exploring the countryside. Here the terrain was already very dry and Laurie really felt it was familiar country ( like on the farm).
Maldon is now a small town of 1800 people that originated in the 1860’s when gold was discovered and for a short period of time more gold was found here than anywhere else in Victoria and it would have developed into a major centre but for a lack of water. There were 30,000 diggers living there at one time when the average wage was 2 Pounds 10 Shillings per week which wasn’t much considering 2.1 million ounces of gold was retrieved from the Maldon area.

read comments (0)