Most Australians love to escape with a beer or two. However Neil Thomas has taken this to a new level. He is the owner of the Great Aussie Beer Shed filled with over 20,000 cans from Australia and around the world he claims to have drunk over the last 45 years. It is a true Aladdin’s cave of wonder. Also in the mix are 4000 beer steins, beer bottles, beer holders, barrels, signs and other beer or alcohol related objects.
To get his guests in the mood, a drink is included with admission. I chose a Mexican beer and my husband a Stout. For anyone who didn’t drink alcohol there were soft drinks available. The Australian and world history we gained listening to Neil’s passion was memorable.
I hope you enjoy sharing our escape. If you every get the chance to travel to Echuca don’t miss this amazing museum.
The Yak used to advertise Yak AlesThe original Carlton Draught Clydesdales Carriage
This post was inspired by Weekly Prompts Weekend Challenge – Escape.
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.
Peppercorn Trees lining the main street of Quambatook
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.
Last year for my birthday holiday we spent a week in Kyneton, 1 hour north-west of Melbourne. It is a country town in the Macedon ranges region of Victoria, Australia.
We stayed at the Kyneton Bush Resort, which is set on 50 acres of natural Australian bushland. To make it educational and fun, the resort has created bush walks with information maps the describes the sites, flora and fauna in the area.
The resort also has fun ways to play games outdoors. Here we have wildflower chess, snakes and ladders and hop scotch.
Today there are two sections of the Kyneton township – the commercial and the historic. One of my favourite places was the Kyneton museum. It is housed in the original the Bank of New South Wales building built in 1856. The downstairs old bank area holds changing special exhibitions. When we were there this was a creative display of young peoples fashion design. Upstairs, which was the bank managers residence is a permanent display of what daily life was like for him and his family. Outside there are also displays in each room and the stables. The displays were fun and full of information and I enjoyed seeing the past come alive and going down memory lane.
