On the eighth day of August, in the year 69
On a lovely spring morning, the weather being fine
A bolter from Pentridge, Jack Power by name
An aspirant for the gallows, to Beechworth he came
Well armed, well mounted, the troops for his foes
To a scrub for concealment the highway man goes
From Beechworth to the Buckland and on the highway
Run Cobb & Co's coaches by night and by day
From Bushranger Jack Power
Why go to Beechworth?
Because it's there.
Seriously :) When I was planning my Melbourne trip, I had a vague idea for an overnight side trip. While I was looking into buses and accommodation this website for old gold town came up. It looked like an interesting place, if I ever got up that way with a car. My plans weren't working out, but then it occurred to me I could make it longer and add on a trip to somewhere else. So I pulled out a map, but Beechworth is off the highway a way so it was probably hard to get to. I checked timetables and, no, there were regular services and the times looked good, so I pulled out Excel and started working out an itinerary that seemed like it might actually work. It did mean my two days in Melbourne would be on the weekend though. Of course, if I'd realised the amount of ringing up I'd have to do to arrange all this, I wouldn't have got started. Fortunately, I didn't.
( Photos, lots of them. )
