1995 Trip Part 4

From here the highway was followed to Portland with its massive wheat silos by the wharf as most of the wheat from western Victoria and eastern south Australia is shipped out through here. This area is also famous for its lobsters but as we were not camping out we had no where to cook it! Portland is also the site of a large aluminium smelter and it was here where the first permanent white settlement was established by the sealers and whalers and they were later followed by the pastoralists. In its early days it was an important whaling centre but that didn't last for long. There are still many old buildings in the town and similar ones are to be found a little further down the coast at Port Fairy or Belfast as it was originally called. It is only a small town but it is one of Victoria's oldest ports, now fishing boats wait at the wharf along the Moyne River where whalers and sealers once traded. Many houses in the town are classified by the National Trust and date back to the 1850s.


Warrnambool Flagstaff shipping museum.

Warrnambool is the largest town in this area which is also known as Shipwreck Coast after the large number of ships were wrecked during mainly the 19thC. A hundred vessels were wrecked within 30 kms of Warrnambool and a couple of hundred more between here and Moonlight Head. Most of these ships were carrying immigrants. One of the most famous was that of the Loch Ard and the narrow gorge where the only 2 survivors were swept in and eventually rescued from, form now part of the National Park. Also a porcelain peacock in its box was washed ashore undamaged from the wreck and it now has the place of honour in the Maritime museum. This museum is set up to represent a working maritime settlement and many relics from the surrounding area have been restored here. It is an interesting place which also shows a lot about the conditions that the early emigrants had coming to Australia. The shipwreck museum also has many educational displays and in the section on navigation it points out that if a chronometer was only one second a day out, on the trip to Victoria this would put them about 60 miles out of their true position and often this would bring them onto the cliffs along the Victorian coast.

Warrnambool shipping museum wharf area.

12 Apostles from the boardwalk.

There are many interesting places along the Great Ocean Road with its spectacular cliffs and views over Bass Strait. The Port Campbell National Park is noted for its various limestone formations that the ocean has carved into various shapes over the centuries such as the Twelve Apostles and London Bridge which lost one of its spans a few years ago to erosion. This area is very popular with tourists for its scenery on both sides of the highway.

12 Apostles on an overcast day.















London Bridge, now partly collapsed.














"Its Freezing!" Christine at Loch Ard Gorge lookout.














Entrance to Loch Ard Gorge.















Approaching Cape Otway the temperate rainforests appear with their eucalyptus and messmate stands of timber. Originally this area was one of the last to be explored because of the rugged nature of the terrain and the dense forests. When it was opened there were many narrow gauge railway lines, both horse and steam hauled, which brought out the timber. After the disastrous bush fires of 1939 the government moved many of the mills to the larger towns on the outskirts of the forest. As the Land Rover was not running properly on occasions it was decided to go as quickly as possible to Geelong so we drove through the Otway Ranges to Colac. It was raining for most of the time now and the fog came down once we climbed away from the coast and travelled through the ranges with their numerous fern gullies.

From here it was a steady run to Geelong, the second largest city in Victoria and a major port. While we would have liked to spend some time at Geelong, we had an appointment to keep at Echuca in a couple of days time so we only stopped at the Fairy Park at Anakie where over the years a collection of animated scenes from various fairy tales have been created forming a village. It is quite popular with the younger children and there were several bus loads of children there. As well there is also a castle from Camelot with many passages, dungeons and surprises for the children.










Above. Christine in the Stocks.
Below. Gingerbread House
















Bendigo, Magnolias flowering.
Bendigo was an important gold mining centre for many years and while the last mine in the town has closed down now there is a lot of exploration work going on in the surrounding areas where there were rich alluvial fields many years ago. It was these rich goldfields which started the gold rushes of the 1850s and later and caused the large inflow of immigrants. As a legacy of the wealth from the goldfields there are many palatial buildings and while its importance as a rail centre has declined, it is still an important city. We stayed with friends here, Brian and Lorraine. Brian was originally thinking of joining us on the trip but a few weeks before we started, he rolled his Toyota on a wet section of gravel road north of Broken Hill and he was still waiting for his car to be repaired. The problems with the car were sorted out and the fault traced to a broken circlip on the distributor which allowed the distributor shaft to move up and down and it was wearing through the graphite contact on the distributor cap. Time didn't allow us to see Bendigo and Christine missed out on a ride on one of Bendigo's trams which now only have a short tourist run around some of the highlights in Bendigo. Originally there was an extensive networks very similar to Ballarat's. (Another important town nearby which also owes its existence to its gold mines) There was a large Chinese population during the gold rush era and many remained here, their Joss House is a major attraction in Bendigo.

Echuca near the wharf area.
From Bendigo the highway took us through the irrigation areas for fruit and vineyards. From here across to Shepparton is where much of the tinned fruit from the SPC and Kyabram canneries comes from. Echuca was last century a very important and busy port and from here a large fleet of paddle steamers worked the Murray river and its tributaries, some going into Queensland in times of high water. They provided transportation to all the local towns and pastoral stations, bringing in provisions and taking out the wool and other produce. Until 1900 when the railways reached the more remote areas, and diverted a lot of the trade to Melbourne, Echuca was the second busiest port in Victoria. The port precinct has been restored with many of the old buildings still carrying out their original tasks such as the steam driven redgum saw mill which is along side the wharf. To allow for the variable height of the Murray the wharf was built in three tiers and made from local red gum, a very long lasting and tough timber. One of the local shops was selling various items from what were once old fence posts. The outside is a weathered grey but inside once the wood is cut, is a deep reddish brown and some attractive and unique items were available.

With the Morrisons at the Celidah.
The main reason for us to visit here was for the Scottish Union meeting which was hosted this year by the Morrison Clan of which I am a member. On the Friday night there was a Celidah or get together of all the members. It was an interesting evening and Christine enjoyed the bagpipes and dancers.






Echuca Wharf and padle steamers,the church paddle steamer is in the middle.
The following morning was free so we had a leisurely look around the town and that afternoon we joined the party again for a cruise on the Murray on two of the paddle steamers. The pipe band was there to pipe everyone aboard then off the boats. We went for a two hour cruise with the pipers playing various tunes much to the disgust of the cockatoos in nearby trees! The river level was high probably due to the melting snow further upstream in the Snowy Mountains.


Paddle steamer "Emmy Lou" at Echuca.

There were some interesting paddle steamers at the wharf, some old work boats which were being restored, the majority being steam driven and a church boat which still visits its parishioners. A few weeks after we left, Echuca was surrounded by the floodwaters which were within a couple of cms. of the highest recorded but the levee banks around the town had been strengthened and they held. In the earlier days the boats used these floods to leave the river and sail across country, which they could do with their shallow draft, and reach the remoter homesteads. However on more than one occasion they were caught when the floods retreated and they had to wait for the next flood.

Being piped off the panel steamer, Mother and daughter on the top deck.

That evening there was a dinner dance, complete with the haggis and the following morning a church service and a march to the Cenotaph for the wreath laying ceremony followed by a BBQ down by the river. It was a very interesting weekend and a few friends were made and it seems that Christine is interested in taking up Highland dancing.





Members of the Morrison Scottish Clans plus one Chinese member.








From here we drove through Shepparton to Wangaratta and Ned Kelly (an infamous bushranger) country to visit some friends of Annes. A quick trip was made to some of the nearby vineyards which produce some acclaimed fortified reds and white table wines. Beechworth is another old gold mining town and the town is noted for its architectural gems, many dating from the last century when the gold rushes made it an important town. The bakery here is known all over Victoria for its excellent bakery products. After the glorious weather that we had experienced for the last few days, the wintry Victorian weather set in and followed us down the highway to Melbourne where we stayed a week at my sister’s place.











Clans lining up at the BBQ.

Christine with Drum Majors gear.





















With Aunty Lynn in Melbourne

We managed to visit a few relatives, some of whom I hadn't meet for many years, and their grandchildren. One meeting was at the Melbourne Zoo where Christine tired out several minders in trying to see all the animals that she had only seen in picture books. She was so excited to see giraffes, elephants, monkeys etc. Margaret Reddan and Elwin McMahon were there with some of their children and grand children. Another trip was made up to Yarra Junction to meet my cousin Bertha Cobby who passed on to me some paintings done by her Grandmother (my G Grandmother) and some old family photos which had belonged to a cousin who had recently passed away. The 30th birthday party for the Land Rover Owners Club in Victoria, of which I have been a member for 25 years, was attended and some old acquaintances were renewed. The Melbourne skyline has changed over the years with some new shopping complexes and the rehabilitation of the Southbank with its old wharfs and sheds being replaced by a shopping complex.

It was pouring with rain when we started our return journey back and we detoured to Gisborne to visit friends who had lived next to us in Parap. In a couple of places the highway was cut by water but cars could get through with care. The low lying parts of Gisborne were cut by floodwaters once the creek overflowed. From here we continued towards Bendigo and made a quick detour to Hanging Rock where the novel and film 'Picnic at Hanging Rock' was based, then we turned left to South Australia and followed the highway through Castlemaine and other old gold mining towns then we were back into the wheat belt. Another days drive bought us to Adelaide where we stayed for a few days and repacked the Land Rover with items that we left here.

We had just left Adelaide when a heavy storm came and followed us nearly to Port Pirie. At Port Wakefield where we stopped for lunch, the sea gulls were being blown backwards so they were huddling where ever there was shelter. Our stop that night was at Woomera where there was for many years the rocket range and weapons testing ground. Most of the Australian and British missiles were tested here and the pilotless Jindivick and similar planes were developed. Since the range was closed the town was vacant for many years but now it has been opened and as well as being a accommodation stop it offers tours over the firing range and to the nearby opal fields. We stayed in one of the accommodation blocks used by the scientists and what was the mess and social club is now a tavern, restaurant and licensed club. The next morning we did a quick drive around the town and visited their rocket museum then we rejoined the highway. That afternoon saw us at Coober Pedy again and we had a short look around the town which is very barren because of its location in such an arid region. A few days earlier a school excursion bus had rolled on a track to one of the outlaying opal fields and a couple of students were killed, and while we were there, the police towed back into the town the damaged bus behind a large 6WD tow truck.

On leaving Kulgera the next morning storms again appeared and it did make the car cooler for long distance driving. Just out of Alice Springs we stopped at the camel farm. There is now a good trade in catching the wild camels and many are being sold to the Arab countries, where they originally came from, to improve the blood lines as by running wild here for a few generations has bred a hardier animal than the Arab camels. They are used here commercially for tourist trips from a day to several weeks duration and there is a demand for their meat from some restaurants. Wild camels are still seen in the more remoter areas though they keep away from human habitation. The last stage coach hauled by camels stopped during the 1920's and that was on the sandy Strzelecki Track.

As it was raining heavily at the Alice we decided to push on to Tennant Creek some 400 kills further on. As the rain kept up for a few days in the Alice Springs area, the Todd River flowed and the annual Henley on the Todd which has been running for some 30 years had to be cancelled for the first time ever as the river had water in it! Under normal circumstances the Henley on the Todd is raced in the dry river bed and boats are made from a light frame with cloth sails and depending on the class of boat a crew from 2 to 12 people are required to run down the course, around the buoy and back to the finish line. It requires some co ordination to get 12 people running together in sand and to turn successfully. The crew of more than one boat has fallen when someone gets out of step and trips the rest up. As there is an American base nearby at Pine Gap there has been a few America Cup clashes held here. These races have become a feature on the tourism calendar.
Legend has it that Tennant Creek grew up around where the dray carrying grog to some miners broke down. Actually a storekeeper wasn't allowed to put his store on the new mining field so he shifted it a few miles south to where the present town is and others followed him. There was a repeater station here from the Overland Telegraph in 1874 but it wasn't until 1926 that the first mines were pegged. There are still operational gold and copper mines here though over the last few years several have finished production. Some of the more famous mines are the Burnt Shirt Mine so called as the prospector who found the gold here accidentally burnt his shirt on the site and Nobles Nob which was discovered by Jack Noble who only had one eye and William Weaber who was totally blind. At its closing in 1985 it was the richest gold mine in Australia.

Out of Tennant Creek are the famous Devils Marbles and further on are some more closed gold mines. Once Elliot was reached the hot humid weather was with us again. On the way back to Darwin we passed Daly Waters with it explorer's tree which was marked by Stuart on his attempts to find a track through to the north. During the early days of QANTAS it was an important aerodrome for the flights to the north.

Further on was Mataranka with its hot thermal pools and the road to the Roper River and near by was the site of We of the Never Never which was made into a successful film at Elsey station.

A couple of weeks after our return the World Solar car championship race was held from Darwin to Adelaide. While there were many high tech cars from Japan and Switzerland, some of the lower budget cars also performed creditably. These cars were quite small with driver comfort a secondary consideration. The cars could only run during the hours of sunlight and with the temperature often in the 40C it would have been uncomfortable sitting in the small cabin with the large solar panels inches above your head. The winning cars made the trip as fast as a normal car for the 2500 odd kms.

We reached Darwin that evening after driving l000kms for that day. While the Land Rover has overdrive and a high ratio diff, l00kms per hour was the maximum cruising speed. Approaching Darwin, Christine started to recognise familiar scenes and was excited at coming home and finding all the toys that had to be left behind.