Edward.
The original jail from the early days, that once held Ned Kelly.
The High Street.
The main intersection, High Street and Sydney Road.
The Spring Creek Falls.
Woolshed Falls.
Part of the trail around the aboriginal site.
Saturday,
July30th
Driving
through Melbourne on Friday night to get to the highway was a
nightmare and I got lost a couple of times on the highways through
town and missed turnoffs. Eventually I found my way and drove three
hours in the dark to Beechworth. The Hume Freeway was great and took
me almost to Beechworth. Then I drove on a smaller road the last 40
kms to town, arriving about 9:30. From what I could see in the dark,
it was a small colonial town with two intersecting main roads with
shops. I found our weekend cottage and Graham and Tess, who drove up
earlier in the day. Edward and Findlay were asleep. We caught up and
had a glass of wine before retiring for the night.
The original plan that Graham and Tess had was to stay in Beechworth and use it as a base to explore some of the mountains in the area hoping to show their boys some snow. However, when we got there the weather was iffy and they had decided that they would see snow on their Tasmania trip in August. So we just stay in the area and did local stuff.
The original plan that Graham and Tess had was to stay in Beechworth and use it as a base to explore some of the mountains in the area hoping to show their boys some snow. However, when we got there the weather was iffy and they had decided that they would see snow on their Tasmania trip in August. So we just stay in the area and did local stuff.
On
Saturday morning I went for a walk around town while they got the
kids organized. Then we all had a walk around this very pretty,
touristy town. Right across the street from our cottage is the old
historic part of the original town. Gold was discovered in the area
in August 1852 and by September there wre 45 people panning, by
November there were 1500 and by January 1853 there were 8000.
Eventually 30 000 people arrived. This quick boomtown growth created
opportunities for businesses and entrepeneurs and problems for
policing and servicing. There was a large building here that housed
the police and a telegraph station that claims to this day to be the
busiest morse code telegraph station in the world (largely because of
tourists sending notes to friends and family for $2). There is also
an old postal station, a hotel and a jail. We walked around the
historical section of the town and checked out the displays.
Beechworth has a few claims to fame. This is where Ned Kelly, the
infamous Australian outlaw bushranger was arrested and jailed. There
is a very small brick building with two cells where he was apparently
locked up with his mother. There is also a large jail here where he
was housed with his gang before his execution. Beechworth is also
known throughout Victoria and New South Wales for both its bakery and
its honey. For these reasons Beechworth is a local tourist
destination and the town has developed a tourist industry with
restaurants, a local micro brewery and shops selling clothing and
other things.
We stopped for
brunch at the local bakery and had a meat pie and drink before going
for a couple of short drives to local scenic spots. The first was a 7
km one way road along the Spring Creek gorge to a waterfall. Then we
took another drive to Woolshed Falls which were in a pretty deep
gorge and were very pretty. Then we took a third drive to a spot
where we could hike around an aboriginal cultural spot where there
were rock paintings dating back thousands of years. However, they
were very hard to see as they were very faded and impossible to
photograph. But the hike was nice and through a series of passages
through large rocks. Edward loved the walk and Findlay enjoyed the
ride on his dad's back.
After,
that we returned to the town and Tess took the boys for a nap and
Graham and I went to the local boutique brewery, Bridge Road Brewers.
I had a full bodied ale called Victoria's Secret (named after the
state you naughty thinkers), which I really enjoyed. For dinner Tess
cooked us all a pasta meal and we spent the evening chatting before
retiring early as we knew the boys would wake us.
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