To begin to round off this year’s A-Z challenge I thought I would share with you more of the amazing coastline. Torquay to Port Fairy is 299 kilometres via the Great Ocean Road. This journey runs along the south western coast of Victoria. And can I say that none of it is the same. Around every bend the views were constantly changes, often taking away one’s breath. The other very interesting variant was the weather and the season. For this reason I am sure that the next time we visit, the experience will be different again.
Category: Blogging from A-Z April Challenge 2022
W: Wycheproof
We found this amazing town by accident. My husband was searching the petrol prices of the area and discovered it was cheapest at Wycheproof. So that was the direction we took. We had never heard of it before. It certainly was a surprise package. For a town of just under 700 people it is unique.
The main street has a railway line running down the centre for the grain trains. This is a rarity in Australia. It was named Broadway after New York’s Broadway approximately 150 years ago.
The local mountain Mt Wycheproof is the smallest registered mountain in the world. Who knew! It is 43 metres above the local plain. I am so clever that I climbed it and have a certificate to prove it. Definitely clever tourism. At the base of the mountain trees were planted as a guard of honour after World War 1. Wycheproofite is a unique geological substance only found on Mt Wycheproof. Unfortunately we didn’t see any on our visit.
My Wycheproof was also the home of the King of the Mountain race last held in 1988. This race was very popular in the area and saw men running up the mountain carrying 63 kilo wheat bags. During the Queen of Mountain race the women carried wheat bags filled with foam. Equality at its finest.
This town was also home to 4 time world champion boomerang thrower – Bernard ‘Bunny’ Read. Bunny made his own boomerangs and started a company which is still in the family.
We enjoyed a chat with the local butcher whose meat was the best. He even vacuum sealed some bacon for us so it would travel well and keep for our journey home.
V: Victoria’s Sculptures
One of the things I loved about Victoria was its amazing sculptures. Every town seemed to have a theme some how connected to the area. Then local artists had created sculptures to blend it all together.
In some instances they have even created stunning children’s playgrounds using the same theme. a great example of this is in Cohuna. Here they have many cow sculptures as it is a dairy area. Then in the amazing children’s playground little cows are used as the seats and the play equipment. It brought a smile to my face.
U: Understanding Free Camping
During our holiday in Truby we free camped. In fact of the 28 days that we were away we only stayed in a caravan park 4 times. For my husband and I this was a very new experience. We were taught the rules and how to go about it by other family members who had been doing it for decades. For anyone who doesn’t know what I am talking about, free camping is stopping anywhere to sleep the night that costs you nothing.
Sometimes in Australia there are designated free camping places. These are the ones my husband and I are comfortable with. However, there is a whole new world out there that we are only learning about. Some of the places we have camped recently include:
- Beside lakes and rivers
- Bush carparks
- By the side of the road
- Empty carparks
- Industrial areas
- Lookouts
- On the grounds of motels/pubs with the owners permission
- Picnic areas
- Private land out of sight of the public
Once I got over the initial anxiety of whether we could or couldn’t park overnight somewhere I loved the experience. On one occasion when we were camped in a lookout the police did a drive by. Rather than ask us to move on they waved so we settled in for the night.
Now I am counting done the days till we can hit the road again to find more hidden gems.
T: Twelve Apostles
The draw card of the Port Campbell National Park is the 12 Apostles. These rock stacks are spectacular popping out of the Southern Ocean. To me they look like they are standing guard over the shoreline. Initially, there were 9 of these rock stacks (never 12 as the name suggests.) However, due to the violent treacherous waves of the area, 2 have disappeared forever into the ocean. The first time our family visited was 20 years ago and there was a seal swimming around one of the rock stacks. The kids called him Sammy and would often talk about him.
Today the whole area looks very different. It is now a very large tourist attraction with a lot of development to really make the most of the natural beauty of the area and support tourism. The 12 Apostles are so internationally renown that the visitors centre is the first place in Australia that I saw an Asian style toilet. As we visited in the week that Australia opened its international borders again the tourist were slowly coming back.
S: Silo Art
Australia has a new and booming tourist industry. Silo Art trails. These can be found all over the country. Artists paint old silos and water towers in rural and regional areas. This creates a reason for tourists to visit and spend money in the town. In general, the artwork reflects the local community.
On our recent holiday we saw many of these glorious artworks. I love reading the stories attached. Most gave great insight into the towns history. They really do change the landscape and brighten up the towns.
We are looking forward on our next trip to discovering more about rural communities through exploring Silo Art trails. They make an amazing outdoor gallery throughout the country and give new ideas on different routes for our travels.
R: Redwoods
I love Californian Redwoods. So when I saw that there was a small plantation of them in Australia I was so excited. My previous Redwood experience was in Rotorua, New Zealand.
Redwoods are the world’s tallest trees. They were planted in the Great Otway National Park in 1936 as an experiment. They have totally thrived here.
I find it so peaceful standing under these majestic trees. They are so straight and just keep going into the sky. They are a tree I can’t resist the urge to give a hug. The forest floor under Redwoods is also very different to anywhere else. It is always only filled with fallen Redwood leaves as nothing else seems to grow there. I personally find this a beautiful sight. Unfortunately it was late in the afternoon when we visited so I couldn’t spend hours with them. I would have also loved to have camped next to them but this was prohibited.
Q: Quambatook
Quambatook on the Avoca river is childhood home of two of Australia’s music celebrities. John Williamson, a country and music star and Molly Meldrum, music entrepeneur, record producer and journalist. It’s hard to believe that not only did they attend the same small country school, but they attended at the same time. Both are celebrated in the Quambatook museum.
John Williamson is my favourite Australian singer and he was the reason we went out of our way to visit this small dying country town. I am currently reading his book True Blue. In it he describes his inspiration for his songs. I hadn’t thought about it before. So I was surprised to learn that many were based on his home town and his childhood.
To explore this further we needed to to stay overnight to get into the museum. This allowed up to meet more locals and understand Quamtabook in its hey day.
OLD MAN EMU was his first hit 
Local special events still held in Quambatook include Silo Cinema and Australian Tractor Pull Championships. They both sound like a lot of fun and bring people from everywhere to the town. When we visited Quambatook, they were setting up for a Silo Cinema that weekend and locals were certainly excited.
I think the thing I was impressed by the most about Quambatook the cremation of Sundeh Singh in the old cemetery in 1917. The town respected the Indian hawker so much that they wanted to give him his rite of cremation according to his religion. This novel ceremony using butter and kerosone was conducted by an out of town priest. After the large funeral pyre went out and the ashes were cooled they were transported back to India and scattered over the river Ganges.
Being an old gold mining town it was interesting to see the goal at the museum site. After gold mining the focus of the town changed to wheat farming. The area is still a large wheat supplier however changes to farming techniques has halved the size of the town.
P: Pioneer Park
Pioneer Park at St Arnaud, Victoria is full of history. It was created on the grounds of the old Lord Nelson Gold mine. And was designed by Edna Walling in 1947. At the time Edna was one of Australia’s most influential landscape designers and she did it for free. Because her friend asked her to. Today, Pioneer Park is the only public park remaining designed by Edna.
As part of her design 200 trees were planted from 36 species in a giant working bee of the town’s people. As I wondered around what remains of the park today I was surprised to see some very different trees. My favourites were the Atlas Cedar and the English Oak. Both looked magnificent and it was exciting to see tree types I had never seen before.
The Atlas Cedar (above) is native to Morocco and the English Oak below is said to be common in Australian parks but was a first for me.
Behind Pioneer Park is the remains of the old gold mine. Some of the locals tell us that the pool of water or pond was a place the children of the town swam. Whilst today the remains look highly polluted they say that when they were swimming there no-one got sick they just had a lot of fun and kept cool. The shelter in the photo below even states
“Presented to the children of St Arnaud by Frank Bray Esq in memory of Dr S.R.Bray accidently killed 1943.”
For us Pioneer Park was also another exciting place that we happened upon. We didn’t understand its true significance until we started wondering around.
O: Oddments of Interest
During our trip every now and then something would surprise me. So I thought I’d put some of them together for today’s post.
Ruby Glass
I discovered Ruby glass at Cape Otway Lightstation. It is panes of red coloured glass that is put in lighthouses with a special light that shines lower out to sea. Because the Ruby glass doesn’t shine as far out to see as the usual light if a ship’s captain could see it they knew that they were too close to shore. Off Cape Otway the Ruby light would shine up to 6 kilometres out. This was because the reefs in many place went out to 4 kilometres. I was also interested that originally the ruby glass was made by adding gold to the glass mixture.
Pyrenees Pies
I couldn’t believe it when were walking down the street in Avoca, Victoria and saw the bakery’s menu. You could choose from crocodile, venison, emu, camel, kangaroo and buffalo pies as well as the usual range. If it had of been lunchtime I might have been tempted but I still am not sure which one I would have chosen.
Thong Tree
Walking along the Murray River at Barham we came across this thong tree. It was outside the caravan park but had no explanation. If we visit again we will bring a donation to the tree.
Bra Fence
In Mathoura on the Cobb and Co Highway a bra fence was commenced in 2018. The idea was to help educate people about breast cancer and fundraise for cancer treatment in the area. It was a huge success and now 4 years later they have added a prostate cancer awareness section with people adding underpants (jocks). Everyone is encourage to leave bras or jocks on the fence in memory of someone they know who has suffered cancer. There is a donation box.
Sand Sculpture
It was grey, overcast and rainy when I walked on Warrnambool beach to explore this vision further. Initially, I thought that it was a giant sandcastle. It wasn’t until I got close that I realized it was an amazing sand sculpture. The intricate detail was so creative. I don’t know why it was there. It was in pristine condition so my guess was it must have been done earlier that day.