After a mad scramble to cancel all my bookings in Sydney just as the border was shutting, I quickly organised a road trip around North Eastern Victoria to see some of the towns that I haven’t been to or haven’t seen in a while.
I usually like to take my time planning holidays, but i managed to cobble this one together in less than 30 minutes.
Bendigo, Echuca, Yarrawonga, Rutherglen, Mansfield and Mt Buller.
We timed the drive from Geelong to Bendigo right around Rubys nap time. I bought a couple of hearty steamed buns from the local Vietnamese shop, feed her up to the hilt and hoped that the rocking motion of the drive would ease her to sleep. It worked a treat. She slept the entire 2 hour drive there and only woke up 5 minutes before arrival.
We passed the charming hillside town of Daylesford and the handsome Castlemaine, all the while listening to Bill Bryson’s book ‘Down Under’. It really felt like we were on a real Australian holiday.
The Julie-Anna motel in Bendigo was right next to the lake. A beautiful situation and a clean little motel too. Central courtyard is grassed lawn with a surprisingly nice swimming pool.
A 5 minute drive and we were at the Bendigo Art Gallery. The thing with Bendigo is that it’s fancy, very fancy. You can tell this used to be a gold mining town. The buildings are oversized and way too extravagant for a rural town of this size. The gallery is no exception. The grand neoclassical façade demands your attention as if to say, ‘we are rich, deal with it’.
The interior of the gallery is equally sumptuous. Reminded me of some of the great galleries around Europe, which I’m sure they were trying to emulate. The Aboriginal fashion design exhibition is something I’ve never seen before and absolutely fascinating.
Adjacent to the gallery is Rosalind park, a leafy Victorian era garden that’s reminiscent of European spa towns such as Baden Baden. The garden is cut in half by a stream that is completely tiled by blue stone, apparently to prevent people from digging up the riverbed for gold. There is a little hill which sits a lookout tower with 360 views which caused my legs to shake uncontrollably from vertigo.
The buildings lining the main street known as Pall Mall are mainly for showing off. The twin buildings of the post office and the courts are lifted straight out of France. Shamrock hotel on the other side of the road is a pile of Victoria “Boom era” architecture that’s brash and elaborate with detailed stucco mouldings and a distinctively Australia feature in its Victorian Filigree styled double storey wrap around iron lacework verandah. Bendigo town hall with it’s neoclassical columns and imposing clock tower is equally grand. Then there is the Victorian greenhouse which is the perfect little white iron lacework wedding cake in the middle of the flower beds. The most amazing part is that in the 1970s, most of the bulidings were up for demolition to convert to office buildings or carparks, for the sake for progress. Absolutely disgraceful that it actually happened to many grand buildings around Australia, such as the Federal Coffee Palace in Melbourne. I’m glad some of history were saved.
Saturday evening in Bendigo is a lively affair. Many streets were shut to traffic for outdoor dining and the people of Bendigo just embraced it. There was live music around town added to the convivial atmosphere. We ate al fresco at the Tap House, a cool beer house inside a cavernous old store room, it was great.
Bendigo is without a doubt one of the jewels of Australia. It may not be big, but the vast amount of wealth that flowed through the town during the gold rush meant that it left a lasting legacy of grand houses, beautiful architecture, stately gardens and lots of art and culture.
We look forward to more exploring tomorrow.
Geelong Family Blog 