Do Not Read This Title

Because I can....



This is Bendigo, on of Victoria's gold mining cities. Population is somewhere between 80,000 and 110,000 people, depending on what and how it is measured, but slightly bigger than Launceston seems to be a good marker (for me anyway).

Text in italics is from the Victorian Heritage Register

( More )

I woke up after half an hour, needing to drink, blow nose and go to bathroom. Half an hour later, I woke up again. This continued through to somewhere around midnight, when I managed to sleep for an hour and half. And then four hours! After which I gave up.

Today's plan was simple. Have a quick look about Victoria Market and get something to eat. Go to the Aquarium.


Strange non-falling-down new building.

( Don't do it! )

By my reckoning, if I leave at 7.30 and it takes half an hour to walk over to the cemetery and half an hour back, then I'll still have plenty of time for breakfast and I can leave for the bus at 9.

Spot the flaw in this plan.


No, it's not that it's still dark this early. (The photos are showing dark on this monitor. They show fine on my home computer so I forget that they are actually dark. I hope that hasn't been a problem.)

( Yep. )

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. )

I'll add a note here, that many of these photos have been taken inside without a flash so they're not as sharp as I'd like, but then it's that or nothing :)


That's a plane :)

( Lots of photos, I mean it. )

I messed up my fortnights and my trip is a *week* from Monday, not a fortnight.

This is Not Good from the financial side of it. But it's good from the "I can't wait any more" side of it. Today's mail brought a package of tourist information from Beechworth Information Centre, all very exciting.

Actually, on the Monday I'm just going out to Mother's place, so she can drop me at the airport the following morning. From there, I fly to Melbourne, and then do the train/coach thing up to north east Victoria. On Friday it's back Melbourne, via neither Albury or Canberra. And Monday I fly home.

I am wondering at what point my "Drop over to Melbourne for a couple of days" became a week-long rodtrip? Oh yeah, when I said "If I have 3 full days in Melbourne, what can I do on the third day?"

Anyway, now I have a week and a bit to finish shrinking my clothes so I can fit a week's worth in an overnight bag.