J Ward Chapel, Ararat, Victoria, Australia
Last week I spent a few days travelling around central and western Victoria, through what were once thriving goldfields, through to the Grampians Ranges for a bit of a gander at the sweeping views.
I spent a day and a night in Bendigo (a couple of hours from Melbourne), a day in Ararat (almost two hours from Bendigo), a night and a morning in Lake Fyans (about an hour from Ararat) and a day in the Grampians (close to three hours back to Melbourne).
I thought I'd let the photos speak for themselves, as in the previous post. This is mainly because I've been writing about 5000 words across four features and one news item (all for Caravan World; they should be published over the next few months), and I had no further head space.
Two interesting perspectives I gained from the trip: the goldfields were a bloody, lawless place, where child-rape, violent murder and general Viking-style pillage was commonplace; Ararat was founded by a group of 700 Chinese who had walked hundreds of kilometres from Robe, in South Australia, to avoid a racist ten-pound poll-tax on Chinese landing at Victorian seaports.
I didn't learn these things at school -- we were taught about the goldfields as a sort of jolly rough-and-tumble free-for-all, populated by sweaty, bearded men, in many ways the precursor the the deified ANZAC we were later introduced to. Little mention was made of the Chinese, except to say they were there, they made lots of money, and their presence tended to irk the hardened Anglos, who occasionally had too much to drink and strung a Celestian (as they were then known), from a tall tree.
I learnt about the violence from Ron Duffin an ex-policeman of two-decade's experience, our excellent tour guide at J Ward Gaol for the Criminally Insane. I learnt about the Chinese contribution to the state of Victoria at Gum San Chinese Heritage Centre, also in Ararat, from a lovely lady by the name of Heather Ahpee, another excellent tour guide.
The rest of my adventures I will post on my website, in laid-out PDF format, when they're published in the magazine.
SPAS FOR MEN(AND WOMEN)
Hotham Heights, Victoria, Australia
In the summer issue of Scoop Traveller Vic/Tas, there will be a cover feature on spas for men, which I have had the wonderful opportunity and great pleasure of writing. In the course writing other features, I've visited a swathe of day spas, and developed a taste for them - who wouldn't, really. For this feature, I spent time at The Lyall Spa, in inner-suburban Melbourne, as well as at the DP Central day spa at Dinner Plain, in the Victorian High Country. I'm hoping it will be a good read too.
Scoop Traveller Vic/Tas is going into its third issue, and it improves every time, so go out and buy a copy.
WONDERFUL WESTIN
The Westin Melbourne, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
In the next issue of Postcards Victoria magazine, I have a feature on the Westin Hotel, on city square in the Melbourne CBD, so go out and buy a copy of that too.
The magazine's latest editor has had a different ethnic/cultural focus at the centre of each issue (the Westin excluded), and I think this next one is going to have a huge feature on the make-up of Melbourne's western suburbs.
In the current issue, I wrote a feature about the Russian community in Melbourne. Check it out here.
MORE ARTICLES ONLINE
Overboard, Langwarrin South, Victoria, Australia
Last night I finally updated my website with more PDFed articles. Have a look at a weekend in Daylesford, a week in Point Lonsdale, on the Bellarine Peninsula, a day on the Mornington Peninsula, and a longer feature-guide to the Mornington Peninsula, and find out what half a million dollars can buy you in a motorhome.
