Where's Julia?

Melbourne Jail and Girls Weekend

Not together only link is both occurred the same day.

While waiting for Karen and Jan to arrive from Perth Murray and I spent a couple of hours at the Melbourne Goal. This self-guided tour left us both feeling utterly sick and at one stage I felt faint. I had visited Alcatraz, but the ‘spiritual feelings’ in this prison did leave us both feeling ill. Whether it was because such atrocities occurred in Australia or whether we did hear the voices of the dead – who knows.

Recounts from women convicted of idle and disorderly behaviour or stealing a hat were recorded. Women did not receive capital punishment, only men over the age of 16 received the lashings from the whip often administered by their own. I was fascinated by the ‘death’ masks, the whipping table and the ropes used to hang the convicts. Visual displays were in the cells, you could walk all 3 floors over the flagstones – that are now slippery.

Children could ‘dress up’ in the Ned Kelly replica armour and have their photo taken.

Girls Weekend

The photos tell the story……

Mid-North-Central Victoria

Beremboke-Trentham-Lancefield-Hanging Rock-Nagambie -Tahbilk Winery-Benella

Travelling through the Great dividing range we noticed the similarities between Margaret River and NZ -the fairy forest floor at Margaret river and the icy cold winds we felt at Trentham.

 Trentham is wombat country, but another example of tourist brochure propaganda-get there and all is closed or open only in the weekend.

 Hanging Rock – without Hanging Rock, this town would not survive. Horse racing and concerts are held at Hanging Rock and there is a 50 minute walk to the rock/s where the girls went missing in 1900 – read the book – Picnic at Hanging Rock.

I enjoyed the Tahbilk Winery complex-the winery is the oldest, established in 1860 and set on an eco lake environment. The Marsanne wine was certainly different-like drinking a savvy blanc leaving a pinot gris after taste.

Benella is home to Weary Dunlop – a physcian famous during the building of the Burma railway, he looked after the Australian pows. This was the beginning of our Ned Kelly momento tour.

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Tuesday 7^th Feb-we headed 20 kms down the road to Glenrowan- renowned for the Ned Kelly shoot out at the Ann Jones Hotel. This town only exists due to the tourists coming thru to get their shot of Ned Kelly history. The museum at the souvenir shop was worth a visit-we did not visit the ‘live’ re-enactment show. We did walk the historical trail to the hotel and visit the blacksmith. We spent 2 hours in Glenrowan and gave it some financial support!

On we drove to Shepperton-passing the many orchards – this is where SPC fruit comes from. We stopped at a roadside stall and bought 1kg of honey for $6.00 and a new apple variety – golden ginger –tasted like a golden delicious and? Rushworth gave me the opportunity to ‘donate’ some funds to this small struggling town- I had a haircut.

Bendigo was our stop that night-another historical town grown from the goldrush days-but oh so many shops-far bigger than Perth but a population around 80,000. We didn’t do any touristy sights-too overdosed on old stuff-so had a meal and drink at the “wine bank”.

Bendigo-Bridgewater-Maldon-Harcourt-Daylesford-Beremboke

Today I drove so Murray could taste the wines along the way. Stopping at Bridgewater-Murray tried the water wheel label. Maldon – very much like Clunes but many more shops and all were open. Pinnocho looked very lonely so he has joined our entourage-but he is tucked away to come out at a later date. Lovely old book shops, wooden floored pet shops, organic vegie shops, antiques and curios, lolly shops just some of the shops competing for the local/tourist dollar. We had an old fashioned meal at the local pub – sausages, mash and gravy. Harcourts Winery tempted Murray into parting with a few dollars.

Daylesford –our last stop for the day is a thriving town, only 30 minutes from where we are staying. This town offers spas, mineral springs, massages and up market nick nacks, and  jewellery.

Fairy Place

Superman writes….

On a very hot Saturday Brenda took me to Fairy Place – oh I was very excited-I had seen this castle from the road and it is only 10 minutes from where we are staying.

Muz was feeling unwell so he and Murray waited for us in the truck. Entrance to the Fairy Place is up a long steep drive – about 300 metres- Murray asked the gatekeeper if he could drop us off, the gatekeeper was not at all helpful, even though Brenda introduced me to him and explained that we would like to take some photos to promote National Year of Reading. So we walked up the steep hill, just as we neared the top a staff member driving down, stopped and offered us a ride to the top-Hurrah!!

Fairy Place is a ‘theme’ park – I guess it must be closest thing to Disneyland that kids in the Geelong  area would see. But it is not rides that the kids see or do. Remember the mechanical fairy tale displays that would appear around Xmas time in the shop windows – well that is what is here – kids get to push a button and watch their favourite fairy tale characters go around and around. The simplicity is incredible, the kids run beserk between displays – this is all up hill – not electric wheelchair friendly, you need to be fit – luckily for me Brenda carried me. But once your kids have run around – they will sleep for a week – so they should – you need your moneys worth - $16 pa and $6 per child.

Puff the Magic Dragon was brightly coloured and stood about 20 metres tall – his eyes lit up – but no climbing was permitted.

I enjoyed meeting the visitors to the park and viewing some of my favourite characters.

Kids under 8 would love the park. Has anyone been to it?

There are more photos but it takes ages to download - Brenda will email them to interested parties, especially BB team, if requested.

Ballarat v Geelong

We are staying halfway between these 2 cities – about a 50 minute drive to both, but oh they are so different.

Ballarat is inland and reknown for goldmining, the Eureka stockade and Soverign Hill – a tourist theme historical mining town village with an entrance fee of $42 pa for the day. Having spent over 7hrs exploring Ballarat we ran out of time to visit.

But we had a great day in Ballarat-dropped the truck off for a service and we were driven into the city dropped at the historical railway station, then we walked the streets of Ballarat. The town is on a hill and the flat parts remind us of Cambridge, NZ with the tree lined streets and old Victorian houses.

The main street is a wide 2 lane, one way system, built on a hill so one way is stepped. Many many old buildings still exist. The art gallery was a great stop and extremely well stocked with art depicting the Eureka Stockade and the gold mining era.

A decandant lunch at the local chocolate café saw us revived to continue exploring, eventually we ended up on a bus going to Creswick-we were treated to a personalised tour of the small town by the bus driver. Creswick is reknown for its woollen mills.

Picking up the truck we headed for the botanical gardens.  Botanical gardens are generally much the same but these were unique with their avenue of Prime Minister busts. Julia Gillard is not there!

Being a hot day we took a short refreshment break at Pipers Restaurant on the lake and watched the rowers and swans.

Many thanks to Bruce and Eunice for pointing out the ‘best’ spots to visit in Ballarat.

Now for Geelong – what a contrast – Geelong is a port city on the coast. Loved the esplanade and the painted bollards, the sea pool, and the general freshness to the city. Wouldn’t recommend the Watershed for lunch – a rude rip off. 

 But we were in Geelong for the rugby trial match between the Chiefs and the Rebels. It was the first time a rugby game had been played on the footy oval. A good crowd of around 10,000 fans – saw many cuzzie bros – the kiwi hot dogs were gross! and the chiefs won 36 to 0!