Part 3 of 3 of our West and Southern Victorian Road Trip. 24th May to 4th June 2022.

 

Well that was a bit of a washout, The two more scenic parts of the trip, The Grampians and The Great Ocean Road both had the wettest and windiest, read that as miserable, weather that wasn't the most favourable for sightseeing.

 

The older houses in Ballarat and Bendigo were a highlight and it would be a national shame of they were allowed to disappear.  My same thoughts go for the larger buildings in these in these mining cities.

 

We saw a lot of the country that we hadn't seen before and some wonderful buildings that often had us going, wow , look at that.  A great trip, well enjoyed.

 

Click / tap on photos to enlarge.

(PbyL) Photo by Lynn

Day 9: 1st July.        Apollo Bay to Sebastopol (Ballarat)

This morning it's still wet and windy. Apollo Bay Harbour breakwall.

               A bird we don't get at home is the Black-faced Cormorant.             
Apollo Bay Harbour.

Seen more often south of home is the Pacific Gull (this is a juvenile),
 much larger than our common Silver Gull. Apollo Bay Harbour.

Still too cold to paddle in the puddles.   Apollo Bay.

It's always good to see a bird that is on the Critically Endangered (NSW) List.
Hooded Plover, with a band on its leg, seen at Kennett River.

Morning coffee at the Grey River Picnic Area, in the rain, inland from Kennett River.

Superb Fairy-wren (female) came out to check on us. 
Grey River Picnic Area.

Left behind logging equipment,  Grey River Picnic Area.

Sulphur-crested Cockatoos terrorising the garbage bins at Lorne.

This was plan 'C'. Plans A and B (timber and other weight) had failed.
I told the fellow that I had seen the Cockies at Bunnings buying screwdrivers.

In Lorne, for something different for lunch, I had picked
American style hamburgers from Pit Stop or Lorne Crepes, Pit Stop won.

Plenty to look at.

Due to the rain, there was plenty of seating available.

That goes without saying.

In the park the cockatoos were planning their next attack on the garbage bins.

The Lorne Jetty / Pier.

Go'n Phishing.

To get a rainbow there has to be sun, so here's hoping.  Lorne.

Somewhere over the .................................

After the sun goes down the wind still blows. Mount Mercer Vic.

Day 10: 2nd July.   Sebastopol (Ballarat)Vic, to Moama, NSW

The morning was a little icy in Ballarat..

The Eureka Stockade Memorial commemorates the miners and soldiers who
lost their lives in the Eureka rebellion, 'Eureka Stockade' in 1854.
Ballarat, Vic.

The Eureka Stockade Memorial showing those killed in the rebellion.

The Eureka Stockade Memorial .

The Pikeman`s Dog memorial consists of  22 large golden stockade
 posts, representing the number of diggers killed in the battle,
and Wee Jock who guarded the body of his dead master.
Eureka Stockade Memorial Park, Ballarat.

One the city's well maintained old houses.

A fine example of the period.

It was amazing to see so many of these older homes.

So many older building from the gold-boom times.

I don't know how bitter.

This 1869 building was originally known as McDowall and Gray's warehouse.

This Edwardian bandstand commemorates the musicians
lost in the "SS Titanic" disaster of 1912, opened in 1915.
Ballarat Mechanics' Institute, 1859, stands behind.  (PbyL)

Minerva, the Roman goddess of wisdom, justice, law, victory, etc etc,
atop the Ballarat Mechanics' Institute building.

The Ballarat Trades Hall, built 1887, and the former
Australian Natives' Association (ANA) building, built 1924.

I was tempted.

Grand Arch is a five-metre by five-metre steel sculpture by Inge King,
Ballarat.

The 1870's built Masonic Temple is now a gallery. 
The import company of Paterson Reid & Bruce (centre)was opened in 1850.
The artwork is on a wall of the Old Sheriff's Office.

Kryal Castle is a fantasy based Medieval Theme Park, Leigh Creek. 
Good Knight.

St Peter's Catholic Church, Clarkes Hill Vic.
Why I visited this isolated church is a long, bird-related, story.
 Anyway, on that stone, under the first window, is an interesting
memorial (see next photo, and nothing to do with birds).

'To honour those who did the hard work in the potato industry
before mechanisation. 1920 - 1935 .........'
Hence the shape of the stone.

'PISS OFF AUSNET'
I don't think they were happy about transmission lines, from the wind farms, going in.
Dean, Vic.

The old   'General MICHELL &SON Merchant'  building in Newlyn, Vic.

Where there was once an industry. This could have been a Chaff Mill, Newlyn.

This property had some interesting 'art works'  (see next 2 photos),
Newlyn Vic.

"Should I dive in or not?" 
Newlyn, Vic.

It would be hard to sleep with this big fella croaking all night.
Newlyn.

Some silhouettes of metal art musicians at 'Overrought Garden Art' at Blapied, Vic.
This is where my metal Lyrebird (next photo) came from.

The Lyrebird in the yard.

A little bridge at Lake Daylesford, Vic

Lunch spot at Splinters Café, Daylesford. 
I wanted to buy the painting, on the wall, but Lynn said no, she didn't like the orange bit on the left.

At the café they were filming a low-budget Bollywood movie.
They wanted us for a dance scene but we had to move on.

Just out of Daylesford we saw these horses grazing in a paddock.

Lucky this fella was chained up or those horses would've been lunch.

There was an Elvis festival on in Bendigo ...............but he had left the building.

Bendigo Creek, Queen Victoria Statue and the Soldiers Memorial Institute Military Museum.

Soldiers Memorial Institute Military Museum, completed in 1921.

Bendigo Magistrates' Court and behind is the old Post Office building (clock tower), now the Bendigo Visitor Centre.

This scene reminds me of Paris.       
The Alexandra Fountain designed by architect Willoiam Vahland in 1881.

Yarn bombing / guerrilla knitting is a type of graffiti or street art
that employs colourful displays of knitted or crochet yarn.

First built as the The Exchange Hotel in 1854 and then became
a concert hall known as the Theatre Royal.  It is now The Hotel Shamrock.

Grey-headed Flying Foxes in Bendigo's Rosalind Park in the centre of the city.

Sacred Heart Cathedral, Bendigo, is one of Australia's
largest churches, consecrated in 1901.

Sacred Heart Cathedral is very impressive.          (PbyL)

Sacred Heart Cathedral and old mail box.

Unique handle on the mail box.

Belgravia House, Grand 19th Century Italianate Residence, Circa 1880.
 I just stopped here to take a photo of the church and
this was typical of a lot of grand houses around here.

Only just got a glimpse of a Bendigo tram (while driving).

Well known mural artists Jimmy D'Vate, painted these silos at Rochester. 
Squirrel Glider and the Azure King Fisher.

And on the back is a Platypus.

Day 11: 3rd July.   Moama to Culcain, NSW.

MUD!   You will see, on the map, that after leaving Moama we went right and then came back.

We were going through the Echuca Regional Park, dry weather road only, as an alterative route to avoid the main road, as you do. Well it hadn't rained for a couple of days so all should be good and ......... there was a lot of forest to check for birds.

It started off good, nice and dry and well graded, then ahead dark wheel-rutted mud. I noticed that some vehicles had bush-bashed a track, parallel with the road, to avoid the mud but we pressed on. By now Lynn is get frightened and thinking we are going to die, or worse, too late now, can't do a u-turn in this stuff, just keep going. The road then firms up again but with water on both sides leaving just a narrow dry strip in between. Lynn still wants to turn around but there's no room and, just when I think it going to be ok the road ahead is just deep-rutted churned up black/red mud, deeper and wetter than before. 

I can't turn around and have to reverse back to where there was a second bush-bashed track and then slide onto that, then onto the first track I had seen but didn't use.  

                     Back onto the well graded part, pull over an make Lynn a calming coffee. 

            I must have been really concentrating on what I was doing because ........ no photos.

The Port of Echuca living monument. 
In the 1870s it was the third largest port in Australia.

The Port of Echuca

The Port of Echuca

Steam engine 996 was a A2 class express passenger locomotive.
It was constructed at the Victorian Railways Newport Workshops in 1916. 
Port of Echuca.

Overlooking the Murray River and paddle-steamers. 
Port of Echuca.

Letting off steam. 
Port of Echuca

Rose Garden Fountain and Red Gum Memorial Archway, Victoria Park, Echuca.

Red Gum Memorial Archway, Victoria Park, Echuca. 
 I don't know who she is, but dressed like that she would be feeling the cold.

Picola Art Silo, painted by Jimmy Dvate in 2020. This side features a Superb Parrot.

On the otherside were animals that use the Barmah Forest. This was the last of the Silo Art we saw.

 I have never seen so many milking cows before.
You can see the line going across the right rear.
The same number were also across the road.  Yalca, Vic

The line just went on forever.

This is the last photo taken with my camera before it fell off
the roof of our car while I was travelling at 100 kph (60 mph),
just past an appropriately named spot, The Cactus Farm.

This was just after 1PM on the day before when I saw my camera slide down past the back window of the car, what a horrible sensation that was.

When walking back to pick it up I could see this semi-trailer coming and thought that the camera would now resemble a 33rpm vinyl record album.  Luckily it had bounced to the side of the road and the truck missed it by half a metre.

The lens cover was off, the swivel viewfinder had opened up and the battery cover was opened but the battery and SD card were still in place. Back in the car I couldn't close the battery cover, and even holding it closed I couldn't get it to turn on. 

So, from there I just concentrated on the road, sometimes I do that while driving, and didn't look for anything to photograph as not being able to do so would have been painful.  

At the motel in Culcairn that night I still had no luck with starting up the camera and was just grateful that this was the last night of our trip and not the first.   

It was just on 24 hours before I took my next photo, with Lynn's phone camera, at Bowning, just south of Yass.

Day 12:  4th July.        Culcairn to Home.

This dog was on the Tuckerbox at Gundagai.  (Lynn's photo)

Bowning, well at least someone's idea of it.

Why is Lynn looking so happy at the Rollonin Café?  (no, it's not because they had a toilet)   Bowning

Finally ................. scones, jam and cream.

Now to see if this old phone can take photos.   Bowning

"Did you bring the spanner?"  "No, I thought you did .......
hang on, here comes Donald the donkey, he might have one."

"Whoops, I'll go to the store and get one"

Like this bike at Bowning, it's come to THE END         
but wait ...............there's one more ................

GOOD NEWS:  A couple of days after getting home, and playing around with the battery cover lid, the camera fired up and is now working.
One of the 'cons' for this camera was "Build quality could be better". So if you are travelling at no more than 100kph (60mph) it should be ok to leave it on the car's roof.

THE END

This link takes you back to Part 1.

For those interested, tap on this link to see my eBird List for the trip,

Cameras:  Canon PowerShot SX70 HS and Samsung S5 (phone)