Beechworth

Findlay... who has learned to walk since the last time I saw him.

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.

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.