Easter weekend has started and crowds are gathering. The quiet Victorian roads are now seething with traffic as people stream out of Melbourne heading for mountains, lakes, rivers and resorts - last chance to enjoy a holiday before the serious business of the year - "The Football" - begins.
We are here in Wangaratta for 2 nights so we can explore the Milawa Gourmet area.
A few wineries were closed in the area but shops were open showcasing local products - we bought olive oils, jams, cheese, mustard, and pickled onions which I am assured are the best in Australia but perhaps this only means the mainland - Tasmania produces great pickled onions!
Leaving Milawa we paused at Gapstead wines to taste the local drop - Ros bought a dozen, I bought 2 (bottles). On to Beechworth.
The countryside has changed - still dry but paddocks dotted with old gums, dry creek beds and punctuated with tracts of fairly open bushland. An escarpment overlooks the farmland, rocky outcrops and folds of hills and gullies lead up to Beechworth.
This was bushranger country: not far away Ned Kelly made his last stand after the shootout with police, spending time in Beechworth lockup and courthouse before taking his final journey to Melbourne for trial, conviction and hanging in 1880. Harry Power, last of the old bushrangers and Ned's mentor also spent time in the gaol. There is a lookout, offering a commanding view of the plains named for him, Power's Lookout, which Geoff and I climbed several years ago. It allowed him to view the troopers and make his escape (obviously not all the time). He died in Beechworth gaol.
Robert O'Hara Burke, of Burke and Wills fame, was superintendent of police here at one time.
Beechworth's importance during the gold rush period as a place of law and order is reflected in the many solid and elegant sandstone public buildings, bank buildings, including a gold vault, hotels and street scapes. The town has one of the best preserved Chinese cemetaries in Australia - the Chinese were instrumental right throughout Victoria in helping to extract the gold.
Today the "gold" is extracted through tourism! Beechworth was thronged with people - the many eateries were doing great business, none more so than the iconic Beechworth Bakery. Beechworth is full of quirky shops selling anything and everything but often homewares, high end clothing and fine art and pottery at the many galleries. The history of the town is highlighted beautifully and there is a great small museum. The town is full of neat cottages and lovely mature trees, deciduous and evergreen, line the streets. Tomorrow there is to be an enormous Easter festival with a procession of floats, vehicles, marchers etc. The whole town is excited and expecting thousands of visitors!
Tonight we're sitting outside our motel unit eating cheese and drinking wine - with applecakes to come because restaraunts are closed but we could hit Maccas if we're desperate!
Home tomorrow - a lovely trip. Gardens, sight seeing, history, food, good company, glorious weather - what more could you ask?
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