the Victorian experience

We spent our last day in Edithburgh in our caravan hiding from the heat. Thank goodness for air conditioning! There was a strong breeze blowing and with the temperature getting around 40C stepping outside was like standing in front of a big fan heater. We have experienced 40C before but that was without wind so under the shade of a tree we were able to get some impression of being cooler. We purposely delayed our departure so we could avoid travelling into the northerly wind and because the “fire danger” was raised that day. By 5pm it was down to a comfortable 29C and the rain that was predicted for 11pm arrived right on time and this continued all night.

For a change from wheat fields and coastal scenery we went to Gawler on the edge of the Barossa valley. We had rain showers for all of the 220km to Gawler, so it was fortunate we hadn’t intended to do much sightseeing along the way. The wheat fields followed us all the way there but a green scene awaited us when we started travelling amongst the vineyards. Gawler is another town with many 100+ year-old quarried stone houses. The stonemasons who built them must have been good craftsmen as their work has stood the test of time.

It was a nice drive from Gawler to Goolwa at the mouth of the Murray River. We passed by many vineyards, through the rolling hills to the east of Adelaide and stopped at the town of Hahndorf. Here the main street has retained its old buildings and they provide a variety of places to eat and many places to buy local produce. It is a busy and pretty little town. At Goolwa the Murray river still has enough water to float the boats due to the barrages and locks that holdback some of the water. At the mouth of the Murray a dredge works full time to keep the mouth open.

We drove to Milang on Lake Alexandrina and saw the effect of the drought and upstream use of the Murray water. In 1998 a boat ramp was built with jetties each side and these are now 100 metres from the water. It was sad to see the little shacks here with their dinghies forlornly sitting out front, high and dry [photo].

While in the Coorong area we went to a lookout to an island where pelicans breed. Although the nesting season is over, with binoculars, we spotted hundreds of pelicans on a small island. We were also treated to displays of groups of pelicans flying in a V formation. Chinese people settled in this area in the 1850s and provided supplies and accommodation to travellers making their way to the Victorian gold fields. We saw a well-preserved circular stone well and saw the areas in the lakebed where the rock had been cut out to build the sides of the well. The tops of the wells were capped with a circular piece of rock that was cut from the lakebed in one piece - quite a feat of engineering. We had hoped to go fishing while we were camped here but it was too windy. We did walk to the beach and there were a couple of fishermen sheltering in the lea of their 4WD, while keeping a watch on their four rods that were cast out into the sea. I think they had been there for quite a while without much success. We celebrated Al’s birthday while camped here and were able to produce roast chicken and birthday cake for a dinner to mark the occasion.

Next we headed inland making for the Grampians, an area we had been to before but with its spectacular rocky escarpments and gum forest it was worth another visit. On the way there we stopped at an informal camping ground for a couple of nights. Here there were lots of sulphur crested cockatoos in the trees, some crimson rosellas as well as magpies and galahs. While we were on a bush walk we came across an Echidna using its nose to dig up the track while looking for food. We were able to get quite close to it and with its impressive spines I guess it doesn't have many enemies so wasn’t worried by our presence.



After crossing the border from South Australia to Victoria we soon noticed that there were no more quarried stone buildings, red brick now a common construction material. We camped for two nights at a camp within the Grampians National Park and spent a day looking at the scenery from the various lookouts in the area. We took a drive along a 4WD gravel road and had more great views from rocky escarpments. We did intend to spend another night camped there but as we were washing up our dinner dishes we heard a report on the radio of a fire in the Grampians that was out of control. It was burning in an area about 10 kilometres away and with a wind change due wasn't heading in our direction. We wanted a restful sleep and were heading off the next day anyway so we decided to pack up that night and move on. We spent that night in a roadside rest area near Horsham and had an undisturbed sleep. The fire made it’s way out of the National Park and when it got to grassland it could be contained. As we were driving out of the park we saw huge plumes of smoke lit up fiery red by the flames.

We carried on in an easterly direction and ended up in the Kooyoora National Park. The National Park was recommended to us when we filled up for petrol and we remembered it to be a nice area from when we orienteered near there in 2002. We walked one of the tracks by our camping area and explored an area with huge granite boulders with some of the groups of boulders being butted and stacked together to form caves.

After a brief stop in Ballarat we headed south to Lake Colac, west of Geelong, where there is a small town. We camped at a free camp spot on the shores of Lake Colac.
A shortage of water is obvious as we travel through Victoria. The roadside rest area we camped at near Horsham was by what was once a lake. There was a sailing club building, boat ramp, sandy shore and signs about swimming but the lake bed was well grassed so has been dry for some time. In Ballarat the lake that was a feature of the city is now almost dry. Certainly no boating now but there is still a little water for the birds. Lake Colac had 100 metres or so of dry lake bed around its edge and the rowing club rooms are now the rooms for the local band.

We took a day trip and drove through the Otway Ranges, which are between Colac and the Great Ocean road. We found some lovely spots in the forest and even places with gullies filled with tree ferns. As we got closer to the coast there was green grass and we saw animals in the paddocks. We had planned to spend a couple of nights on the Bellarine Peninsula, just across Port Phillip Bay from Melbourne but weren’t prepared to pay $46 per night to park our caravan (or $30 for an unpowered site!!) so stopped in Geelong instead. It was then a short drive to Melbourne where we stayed with Tom and Mary.

We had several days in Melbourne when we explored different parts of the city. We saw the bustle and vibe of the CBD, the quiet grandeur of the State Library, the cool trees of the many parks. Out Williamstown way we watched people swimming at the beach and ate fish & chips under the shade of a tree in the park. We rode the city trains, buses and trams. We were left with the impression of a city with lots of trees, lovely architecture, many parks and a vibrant downtown area.

Our next day’s travel didn’t take us far as we only moved to the eastern side of the city where we had arranged to meet up with old friends. They were travelling for work and were going in the opposite direction so for a while it seemed that we would miss each other, but as our plans are flexible we changed course so we could meet up. We spent an enjoyable couple of days camped beside each other and catching up on the missing years. We took a day trip though the Dandenong ranges and out to Marysville, which was the scene of tragic devastation by fire a year ago. Today Marysville looks like a brand new subdivision as only about two buildings survived the fire. There are many new houses being built and it’s the presence of established roads that give a hint that something was here before. In many cases we saw a front fence and a mailbox with little more than an old concrete foundation on the section behind, a sobering reminder of the tragedy of a year ago. The bush around Marysville shows signs of recovery, as there are lots of tree ferns in the under-story and many gum trees are covered in green fuzz where new branches sprout out from the trunks. Amongst all this are blackened trunks, dead trees and trees with dead branches so many more years are needed before the forest returns to it’s former glory.