On the road south
Cath and I took a ten-day road trip at the end of May. Our plans were disrupted first by an unexpected call for me to attend an interview for a job I'd applied for (I did the interview, didn't get the job) and, secondly, and helpfully, by the cancellation of a proposed Seminar at Charles Sturt Uni in Bathurst. The former meant that we had to interrupt the trip to return to Sydney (after a weekend in Canberra which had included a Swans football game and two visits to the Australian War Memorial - a place I have been to since I was a schoolboy in the early 1960s). The new, improved War Memorial is well worth a look if you're in Canberra - an exceptionally well-organised series of exhibitions demonstrating our capacity for fighting other people's wars - particularly British and American wars.
After the interview we started again, heading south, down the pacific coast to Tathra, a small-town about 400 km south of Sydney. We explored around the south coast area, including the Mimosa Rocks National Park and the wilderness and cliff faces of the Ben Boyd National Park, near Eden. In between were some lovely beaches, particularly at Pambula. The Ben Boyd/Eden area was formerly the centre of the Australian whaling industry - whaling and sealing constituted our first major export industry, before the increasing settlement of the inland gave rise to sheep grazing for wool at the staple. There are manifold remnants of the whalers, including a museum in Eden and the ruins of stations along the coast, not to mention "Boyd's folly" - a crenulated tower at the entrance to Twofold Bay - originally meant to be the centre-piece of a huge urban development but which became a watchtower for whalers before becoming a tourist attraction. We had a number of opportunities for coastal walks in various environments, including rocky outcrops (porphyry in color at Pambula), river estuaries and temperate rain forests. And of course beaches. In terms of food, we found a good jam maker at Tathra - the Tathra Beach Pickle Factory which makes a beautiful Vodka Grapefruit Marmalade.
From Eden we headed further south into Victoria. First there was a magnificent forest drive up and around Mount Naghi, the beauty mitigated only by the treefelling that continues in this alleged wilderness area. There was about 50 kilometers of off-road driving, highlighted by a narrow track up to a lookout, which was oriented south over the Cape Howe, Gabo Island and Mallacoota, where we headed for lunch. Cape Howe and Gabo Island, in the north-east corner of Victoria, resonate because they are the geographic markers that indicate the northern entrance to Bass Strait, separating Tasmania from the north island. From Mallacoota we drove to Lakes Entrance in the Gippsland area, 300 km east of Melbourne.
Feeling that we were getting too close to Melbourne we turned north and travelled over the Great Alpine Road into northern Victoria. The Road took us north through lovely country to Omeo in the foothills of the Victorian Alps (which form the southern arm of the Great Dividing Range). Omeo was the centre of one of the huge fires in northern Victoria earlier this year and the scars of the fire are obvious everywhere.
Thence we climbed up to the roof of the Victorian world, Mount Hotham, with burned out areas on both sides of the car most of the way. This road generally becomes difficult or impassable at the start of winter (1 June). Fortunately it was 30 May when we did the drive, so there were only marginal traces of ice and snow, the road was open and chains were not required. Mount Hotham is a skiing paradise, so naturally it is replete with housing and accommodation you wouldn't pay to visit, unless it was a resort. There were five or six ski runs visible with only a sprinkling of powder, two weeks before the official start of the ski season. Artificial snow-making was in progress on the upper runs. Noting how much I enjoyed the leisurely drive up from Omeo to Mount Hotham, I can add that I did not enjoy at all the descent to Harrietville. It may have been better to do the road from north to south rather than the way we did it because the ascent/ descent from/to Harrietville is much hairier, and steeper, over a smaller distance. I am afeared of heights to begin this and the absence of barriers along the side of the road, coupled with the minor amount of ice that was on some shaded corners, made the descent a nightmare for me. Still, Cath is an excellent driver and we were never even close to danger except when she was captivated by the views close to hairpin bends.
From the northern foothills of the Alps we drove to Yackandandah. It was near this historic township that we'd booked accommodation for the weekend. Yackandandah is near Beechworth, in the midst of northern Victoria's food and wine district, but both towns are products of the gold-rush and were first settled, and developed, by prospectors and the merchants that preyed on them. (One of the first of my ancestors to arrive in Australia plied trade on the goldfields as an itinerant tinker, so I have some sympathy for civilian exploiters of prospectors.) The accommodation was a self-contained cabin in the backblocks, about 5 km from Yack. We stayed there three nights and used it as a base for exploring the region. Yack is an anachronism, which the locals try to exploit for its quaint recreation of an earlier period. Try but don't succeed because there is little oomph in their marketing of the beauties that it offers. (Compare that with historical Berrima in NSW or York in WA which have much more successfully marketed themselves as preserved colonial townships.)
Beechworth is a much more successful operation because it has adapted its charm to the needs of a number of merchant enterprises, including the Beechworth Bakery, a glorified pie-shop that does a roaring trade, a number of galleries and antique shops, a good museum, an excellent pottery (One Tree Hill), which also markets the pots of a number of other local artisans, and a number of good food producers and outlets. The area around Beechworth was devastated by the fires earlier this year and the back road drive to the nearby falls was a very sad one for that reason. The falls are contained with an area where there are the remains of a large alluvial gold-mining operation and a self-guided walk through the area reveals the methods they used to find the precious metal and the changes they wrought in the local environment as a result. We spent the first day in the area, driving through the larger townships, and exploring the goldmine remains.
On the second day, we decided to sample the food and wine delights of the region. This led us first to Milawa, about 50 km west. Milawa we knew from a winery (Browns Brothers) and the cheese factory. What we were surprised to find is that a number of other food operations had been established, including an olive shop and a mustard maker. The olives were OK but the discovery there was a number of excellent dukkahs. Dukkah is a north African mix of crushed nuts and spices, used as a seasoning for bread (dip the bread in oil and then the dukkah) or as an addition to soup. The mustards were of excellent quality, from mild to very hot indeed. We then headed to the Cheese Factory which is an experience not to be missed. All of these merchants have learned the lesson of the cellar-door wineries: you sell more if you give free samples. So we were able to taste the olives, dukkah, mustards and cheeses before we bought. And buy we did, including a great strong cheddar-style cheese, the Milawa Gold, and a truly excellent "Afine", a goats cheese with a brie like rind. At the cheese shop we discovered a jam and preserves maker in Beechworth we had been unaware of, so we drove back to Beechworth. At Beechworth Preserves, we found the best outlet of the lot. The shop is located outside the main part of town on the road west towards the Hume Highway. Not only were there some fine jams, but a couple of chutneys that were out of this world. I preferred the apple and ginger, Cath the roasted tomato. They also served lunch - vegetable and/or chicken filo wraps - which we enjoyed before spending entirely too much money on foodstuffs. We ended the day with a further longish drive to Glen Rowan which many know as the town in which Heath Ledger Ned Kelly was finally captured but which for us has always been the home of Baileys, the best maker of fortified wines in northern Victoria. It was the only wine tasting of the trip but up to their usual standard - both for shiraz and for Muscat. More purchases.
A good road trip with some excellent new discoveries on the south coast of NSW - especially around Tathra and Pambula, where you can see the sea from the mountains - and in the food and wine and pottery district of Victoria. It was good to be on the road again and to have serendipity available to us.
First written: July 2003
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