On the next part of our Australia trip we drove from Sydney south towards Melbourne. Along the coast for a while then cutting inland to the Snowy Mountains before returning to the coast near the Mornington Peninsula before arriving in Melbourne.
I got a reasonably early start on the road from my cousin Jane's house and drove to pick up Diana at her cousin Branco's house in the Warwick Farm suburb of Sydney. It was morning rush hour but thankfully the traffic wasn't too bad. I was still trying to get used to the rental car and to driving on the left side of the road so I was taking it very carefully.
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| Ocean Road near Coledale |
After picking up Diana, we headed towards the coast near Stanwell Park. It was a lovely sunny day, unlike the previous rainy day, and the views along the coast road were quite beautiful. There was a new section of road with a nice modern bridge near Coledale.
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| Coledale Beach |
In Coledale we stopped for coffee and cake in a nice artsy coffee shop. The beach in Coledale was lovely too with beautiful golden sand.
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| Wollongong Lighthouse |
Driving further south we entered Wollongong and stopped to look at the lighthouse there. In the next town, Port Kembla, here was a lot of industry - a steel works and huge silos for the export of grain.
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| The Blowhole at Kiara |
At Kiama there was a blowhole on the rocks near the beach. We stopped to see if the tide was right for some blowhole action. There were intermittent moderate spouts of water but I wouldn't call it epic in any way.
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| Mollymook Beach |
We arrived in Bateman's Bay as the sun was setting and drove through town looking for a hotel. We found a nice one, the Esplanade Hotel, overlooking the Clyde River as it flows out into Bateman's Bay. In the evening we dined in a restaurant at the marina just south of the hotel. We had a nice fish and chips dinner and then i noticed the desert menu featured Christmas Pudding. That was a little strange in mid-April but as it is one of my favorites I had to try it. Indeed it was good.
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| View of Clyde River at Bateman’s Bay |
The next morning, Wednesday, we had breakfast at a restaurant by the Clyde River estuary - a rather large bacon and egg sandwich. Fully fueled, we continued our drive south along the coastal road, the Princes Highway.
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| Tilba |
We took a diversion of the main road to look at the town of Tilba. This small community was turning itself into a bit of a tourist town. There was a lovely old Post Office, an old hotel, and plenty of shops selling bric a brac, t shirts and antiques. We were shocked when it turned out that one small 1 bath house in Tilba had a listing price of $1.2 million Australian (around US $ 900,000). Property is not cheap in this part of Australia.
The next town on the road was called Tilba Tilba. It should be twice as nice as Tilba, but in actual fact there is not much there, just a couple of houses.
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| Bermagui Beach |
The Princes Highway ran a little ways inland so we took a diversion towards the coast and drove through the coastal town of Bermagui. A fairly plain little town but it had beautiful sandy beaches. The forests around Bermagui were quite luxuriant - large ferns, yellow mimosa and of course lots of eucalyptus.
Following the minor coastal road was quite slow so we eventually turned back to the Princes Highway, and continued our way south to the town of Bega. We had been advised by Andy and Jane in Sydney that the prettier road south was through the Snowy Mountains so at Bega we turned west off the Princes Highway onto the Snowy Mountain Highway.
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| Numbugga on the Snowy Mountain Highway |
The countryside was beautiful - lots of cattle and sheep farming. In the small town of Nimmitabel we stopped for coffee and cake in a cafe. The coffee was great as was the rock cake. There was an interesting elephant sculpture in the yard next to the coffee shop - what that was doing there I do not know.
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| The Elephant in Nimmitabel |
We drove on through lovely countryside to the town of Cooma where we filled up with diesel. Cooma is larger town, the largest in the area. I like the style of the old Australian streets, the buildings all have verandahs and there is a lot of decorative ironwork.
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| The old Kiandra Courthouse and Gaol |
We drove further along the Snowy Mountain Highway through Adimanaby. We stopped to look around the deserted gold mining town of Kiandra. There is not much there now, just an old courthouse and police station with a gaol. Since the gold ran out and all mining stopped it was repurposed for a while as a ski chalet.
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| Kosciusko National Park |
The road continued on through the Kosciusko National Park. The area is sparsely populated but the scenery is very beautiful.
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| Kangaroo by the Snowy Mountain Highway |
It was getting late in the afternoon and as the sun was getting low it was the time for Australia's wildlife to come out. Up to this point we had not seen a live kangaroo or wallaby in the wild, just lots and lots of dead animals by the roadside. But here in the late afternoon the kangaroos and wallabies were getting active and finally we got to see these strange marsupials in the wild. Lots of them just minding their own business grazing on the grass.
It appears that the wildlife here in Australia is not that smart when it comes to avoiding cars and trucks. A significant proportion of all cars and all trucks are fitted with heavy duty bumpers, so called Roo Bars. The wildlife is more active from dusk to dawn and they seem to be drawn to the road where they become mesmerized by the headlights. The collisions never end well for the wild life and the vehicles don’t do well either unless they have their Roo Bars.
As the sun was setting we drove into the town of Tumut and we searched around for a hotel. There weren't a lot of hotels to choose from but we did find one close to the center of town and in reasonable shape. Food choices in Tumut were not great either. We ended up at a Pizza Parlor that was staffed by young kids under 18. Since at that age they were not allowed to serve beers, we had to go to the fridge ourselves and take out our own beer.
We had planned to go to Burning Man later in the year, and the lottery for tickets opened on this day, I got up before 5:00 am to get on line and get in the queue for tickets. I got on the website at 5:00 the exact time the lottery opened in the US and I waited and waited and waited. After 25 minutes of watching my web browser spin, I got through and secured the tickets - very nice.
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| Outside Tumut |
We were on the road again by 8:30 in the morning. We joined the motorway that runs between Sydney and Melbourne for a while. As we sped along this major road, the landscape looked very similar to the California landscape - sheep, cattle, golden-brown grass with the occasional green Eucalyptus tree or Golden Poplar tree.
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| The Submarine in Holbrook |
We turned off the highway in Holbrook where there is a full size submarine mounted in a park in the middle of town. The town used to be called Germantown but when World War 1 broke out it was thought that Germantown was not an acceptable name for a town so they changed it. They chose to honor the name of Norman Douglas Holbrook, a submariner who was awarded the Victoria Cross for his actions in the Dardanelles campaign in 1914. The name was retained after the war and when a submarine became available in 1995 there was a fundraiser to buy the submarine. That is how a huge submarine now sits in the middle of a park in this town way off the beaten track in New South Wales.
Holbrooke had a few other things going for it too - a Woolpack Museum and a Pottery Museum. Unfortunately, neither of which we visited.
We left the highway in Albury, a larger town where we had coffee and a corny biscuit (so called because there are corn flakes on the top of the biscuit).
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| Controlled Burns in the Kiewa Valley |
We drove on towards Wodonga and the Kiewa Valley. The country side was beautiful - eucalyptus everywhere, sheep, cattle, what looked like very good agricultural land. They were carrying out controlled burns so there was a bit of smoke in the air.
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| Mt Bogong, Victoria |
Somewhere along the way we left New South Wales and we were now in Victoria. We passed by Mt Bogong, the tallest mountain in Victoria at 6,500 ft. We also went through the town of Beauty, and the adjacent Mt Beauty. As the name suggests it is quite nice.
We then drove up a very twisty road up the hill to Falls Creek. At Falls Creek there was a ski resort. There was no snow at this time but it was above 5,000 ft so there was a chill in the air. The trees were quite stunted and sparse at this high altitude.
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| Rocky Valley Reservoir |
At the top of the pass above Falls Creek was the Rocky Valley reservoir, a large man-made lake for water storage. It was a bit bleak up there so high.
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| Between Omio and Bairnsdale |
From Falls Creek and Rocky Valley we dropped down to the east and the lower lands below. The road downhill was quite scenic and we passed through the small towns of Anglers Rest, Omio, Doctors Flat, Bairnsdale, Bruthen and eventually Sale where we were staying for the night. It was evening and we encountered wallabies in the road. You have to be careful driving at night.
Our hotel was a little unusual, it was more like a gated community of town homes. It was late and there was no one in reception but there was a machine that was supposed to dispense keys for your reservation. Of course that didn’t work for us. A phone call finally got someone’s attention and they manually opened the machine to give us our key.
The next morning we had a quick breakfast in the hotel and started our drive towards Melbourne. Our goal was to be in Melbourne that evening.
We had been told of a winery in the Mornington Peninsula where there was a rather fine sculpture garden, the Point Leo Estate, so we decided to stop off there. It was about a 3 hour drive to get to the winery. Surprisingly for a very popular wine growing area we did not see many vineyards. The vineyards must be well hidden behind the eucalyptus trees.
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| Queensland Bottle Tree |
At the entrance to the winery there was a beautiful tree - a Queensland Bottle Tree - such an unusual tree.
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| Pumpkin by Kusama |
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| Hare by Flanagan |
The sculpture garden was pretty amazing too. Some 16 or so acres of land with over 70 sculptures and nice views of the ocean. My favorite pieces were the Kusama Pumpkin and the Flanagan Hare. That’s probably because I had seen a Kusama Pumpkin in Japan and a Flanagan Hare in the Yorkshire Sculpture Park.
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| Sculpture by KAWS |
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| Cape Schank Lighthouse |
From the winery we drove on to Cape Schank to see the lighthouse. The lighthouse sits on the southernmost tip of the Mornington Peninsula with great views out into the Bass Strait. In the grounds of the lighthouse there were a couple of kangaroos grazing on the grass - unusual because they are usually not active in the middle of the afternoon. They were completely uninterested in us and just kept on nibbling the grass. After seeing so many dead kangaroos by the side of the road it was nice to see some alive ones.
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| Portsea |
We drove on to the north side of the peninsula and the towns of Sorrento and Portsea; these face the bay and the city of Melbourne. They were nice towns, probably second home towns for the people of Melbourne, but not that remarkable.
As the sun was setting we drove into Melbourne. We were doing well with the driving until we came across the Melbourne Hook Turn. This is a confusing (to newcomers) way of turning right (remember they drive on the left there) by moving to the left side of the road and waiting for a green light that lets you move across traffic and make your right turn.
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| The Treasury on Collins Street |
We checked into our hotel, the Treasury on Collins, a very fine old financial building. The room was great with a nice balcony and a view of the city. Unlimited free snacks and drinks so we didn’t need to go out for dinner that night.
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| Fresh Fish at the Victoria Market |
The next morning after breakfast at the hotel we set off to turn our car in and explore the city. The Europcar rental office was nearby the Victoria Market so after dropping the car off we went to the market. It was a most wonderful market - all manner of great product - fish, meat, fruits, vegetables and all sorts of clothing, hats and trinkets. I have never seen a market in the US or the UK with such a wonderful selection of produce.
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| The giant thumb at the National Gallery of Victoria |
From the market we walked down Flinders Street, through a heavily Chinese and Asian neighborhood to the Flinders Railway Station. The area around the station is quite the center of activity in Melbourne - the station, churches, museums, the river. We walked over the Yarra River to the National Gallery of Victoria.
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| Dancing Pumpkin by Kusama |
In the main lobby of the museum was another Kusama Pumpkin, this one a dancing pumpkin. The gallery has a great collection of works - aboriginal art, Australian art, and even European art.
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| Camp Sovereignty, Kings Domain, Melbourne |
After the museum we walked over the street to the Queen Victoria Park and the Kings Domain where there was a small group of Aboriginal people with a huge sign identifying the area as Camp Sovereignty. It is an ongoing demonstration asserting Aboriginal sovereignty and self determination and it has been going on in the same area since 2006. Other than the big sign it was quite low key.
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| Headless King George |
In the same park area there was a statue of King George V. Unfortunately, someone had chopped off George’s head - it was a headless statue. The whereabouts of the head are unknown however it did show up on the side of the stage at a recent concert by a Northern Irish Hip Hop Group. The Northern Irish have similar complaints to the Aborigines in this case.
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| Shrine of Remembrance, War Memorial, Melbourne |
Further along in the park was a large and very impressive memorial built to honor the dead of World War I. Australia have a lot of memorials to the dead in World War I.
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| Wiper Statue, Melbourne |
There is also a statue of 2 soldiers from that war - the Driver and the Wiper. The Driver is a statue of a horse handler in WWI, the Wiper is a soldier from the front lines. Wiper being a derivative of the Belgian city of Ypres where one of the more significant battles took place.
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| Yarra River, Melbourne |
We sampled some more Australian wine at the “free wine hour” at our hotel. Their wines in this part of the world are particularly good. Later in the evening we went out for a nice meal at Bistrot d’ Orsay, a nice French restaurant just down the street from our hotel.
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| Block Arcade, Melbourne |
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| Tea Rooms, Block Arcade, Melbourne |
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| Trumpeters Clock, Block Arcade, Melbourne |
That same arcade had a clock with two trumpet players on either side. When it was time to strike the hour, the pipers lifted their horns and moved into position while horn music was played. Quite wonderful!
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| Graffiti, Melbourne |
We then stumbled on an area with lots of graffiti. We spent an enjoyable 30 minutes or so photographing the interesting and clever graffiti.
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| Aboriginal Art, National Gallery of Victoria |
Next we visited another facility of the National Gallery of Victoria, a gallery primarily devoted to Aboriginal Art. Another wonderful exhibition.
Outside the Gallery is the Federation Square, a nice pedestrian area full of people and restaurants and coffee shops, all surrounded by very modern buildings. A nice place to spend some time relaxing in the city.
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| Vintage Tram, Melbourne |
We next took a tram on the circular route around the center of the city. This route is serviced by older more historic trams and of course it is free.
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| Royal Exhibition Hall, Melbourne |
We got off the tram outside the Royal Exhibition Hall. A wonderfully ornate Victorian era building with a domed roof built in 1880.
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| Mural, High Street, Northcote |
Next stop was High Street in Northcote. We had read that this street had been designated as the coolest street in the whole world. That is an impressive title so we had to take a look. We took and Uber out there and walked the street for a while. To be honest, we didn’t find it to be that cool. It was a bit bohemian maybe but it was also quite shabby. Maybe we didn’t find the right part of the street but we were not impressed and took an Uber back to the city.
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| State Library of Victoria |
We stopped in the State Library of Victoria. A nice old building with a wonderful central reading room. We walked up to the 6th floor from which there is a great view down to the reading room below. On the ground floor there is a glass cabinet containing the armor of Ned Kelly, Australia’s most infamous outlaw. The armor must have been quite heavy and while it did protect him from a fatal shot, it likely restricted his ability to escape from the police. They tried him and found him guilty and he was hanged in Old Melbourne Gaol.
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| Ned Kelly’s Armor, State Library of Victoria |
We took the tram back to our hotel and indulged in the wine hour. Then we went out for a great meal at La Reine et La Rue, a restaurant in an old bank building near the hotel. What a great environment for a restaurant and a great meal. A little expensive but well worth it.
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| Bank Building/Museum |
The next morning, our last in Melbourne, we went out for another walk down Collins Street. We visited the bank in the same building as the previous night’s restaurant. While it is still a working bank it is also a museum showing off what splendid building the bank was in its heyday.
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| Manchester Insurance Building |
We also looked inside the old Manchester Insurance Building. It is a little shabby now, but there were glimpses of its splendid art deco past.
By mid morning we were back in the hotel to check out and take an Uber to the airport for our Jetstar flight to Hobart, Tasmania. Melbourne is indeed a very fine city.
