Halls Gap - The Grampians

On the road to Halls Gap.

Halls Gap, in central western Victoria, is the gateway to the Grampians National Park. It is an area we have never visited before, and came as a wonderful surprise to us. We really fell in love with the area, and quickly realised we would need weeks to see what the immediate and surrounding area, has to offer. So another place goes onto the come back list.
We came along the Western Fwy from Melbourne, turning off at Ararat, and driving through some wonderful sheep grazing country, and field after field of golden canola.

Courtesy of Tom Wills.

Along the road, we passed through the small village of Moyston, where a sign heralded that this was the town where the game of Australian Football was born. Yes folks, this is the place where some poor guy playing rugby, got so scared that he might be tackled, he kicked the ball as hard as he could and everyone chased after it. Well, that isn't actually true. In fact I made it up, like a true rugby man would! The game was actually a derivative of an aboriginal game. A local identity, Tom Wills, is credited with inventing the game, which incorporated many of the rules he learnt from the games he played as a child with the local aborigines. Tom Wills was also a great cricketer, and was involved in taking Australia's first touring cricket team to England, an all Aboriginal team. His statue stands outside the MCG today. A true sporting hero to all Victorians.

Need help with the cooking?

Kangaroos everywhere!

As you approach  Halls Gap, the majesty of the Grampians looms large over the town. We find our caravan park The Big4 Parkgate Resort (very fancy!), and with help from the friendly manager Kim, we are soon settled in on a spacious corner site. I think that next time we would stay at the Halls Gap Caravan & Tourist Park which is right in the middle of town, and is pet friendly. Our park was excellent with great facilities, but it is 1.3kms from town. The area is full of wildlife. In fact the caravan park is full of very friendly critters. As I cooked dinner a kookaburra literally flew in and sat beside the BBQ. There were kangaroos, hopping by, and across the park were a number of less friendly emus. The bird life was prolific, with huge flocks of Corellas, galahs and cockatoos screeching and squawking from every paddock and tree. 

Mackenzie Falls.

Carolyn at The Pinnacle.

The area is most famous for its walks and breathtaking mountain scenery. It is wonderfully sign posted whether in car or on foot. Walks range from easy to ridiculous, and again Sherpa Tensing could well be the rating guy! We did most of the drives to the fabulous lookouts called Boroka and Reed, and we drove out and did the 2km walk to the Mackenzie Falls which were lovely. We spoke to the staff at the Outdoor Shop in town, about the various walks, taking into account our fitness level and John's dodgy knees. She suggested John buy one Nordic style hiking pole as it would give good support when climbing up and down over the bush steps and rocky paths, and it was excellent advice. We did the "moderate" 4.2km walk to The Pinnacles, probably the most famous landmark in the area, and it was well worth the sweat and shortness of breath. It was blowing a gale when we got there, (no it wasn't us heavy breathing!) but the views were amazing.

John & Carolyn at the Pinnacle.

The other walk we did was along Fyans Creek. It started from opposite our caravan park and headed around behind the town and almost out to the opposite end of town. It was beautiful, and lacked the arduous climbing of the Pinnacle walk. We saw lots of different birds and kangaroos and wallabies. It was around 5.5km and primed us for coffee at "Livefast", the venue we had decided was the best coffee and lunch spot in town. We had an excellent breakfast here on our last full day. It was different to the normal fare and comprised pan fried pork belly, on a herbed potato cake, served with poached eggs and a fresh Salsa. Scrumptious is an apt description!

Elvis would have approved!

On Sunday, there was a big car rally in town at the local oval. It was called Show & Shine, and featured over 100 vintage and veteran cars, all beautifully restored and presented for judging in countless categories. A gold coin donation was all it cost for a walk down memory lane. It wasn't only confined to cars. There were some wonderfully painted motor bikes as well. Watching the owners was as much fun as watching the cars. Many were dressed in clothes to match the period their car was from. There were jumping castles, side shows and food stalls. By 5.00pm it was all over and the kangaroos had reclaimed the oval!

The real truth behind immigration, or
what bad fishermen have for lunch?

The surrounding area is a treat to drive through. Lake Fyans is nearby, and was hosting its annual fishing tournament weekend. We met some intrepid fisherman seeking the ideal spot to fish. They told us they had been coming for 17 years and were yet to weigh in a fish!! Talk about keen, with their hats full of flies they'd made, they sure looked the part! They did say that the record bad fisherman was into his 34th year without weighing in a fish. Thank god for Fish Shops! We also drove out to Horsham, the regional capital of the area. It looked a nice City, as we only did a drive around. There was a garden show happening at the Riverside gardens, and a lovely new aquatic centre. The entire regions is sheep and glorious fields of grain and golden canola. 

Guess who won in 2007?

Bringing out the gold bearing ore.

Other towns of note are Stawell, home to the famous professional footrace held each Easter for more than 100 years, and Ararat, which is the site of the richest alluvial gold find in Australia. Stawell is the closest "big" centre to Halls Gap, and is where you come to do your grocery and general shopping. It is a nice town. The streets are lined with gold and orange daisies at present, that have self seeded in the grass. They become carpets of gold which makes it a real site to behold. There are some lovely old period homes and spectacular gardens. The Visitor Centre is at the Athletics Ground, where we did the tour tracing the history of the famous foot race. Even got to set foot on the beautifully manicured real grass track. The other major attraction in town is the modern, working gold mine, right in town. They have taken more than 2 million ounces of gold since it commenced in the 1990's. 

Inside J Ward.

The Orchid House at Ararat
Botanical Gardens.

Ararat Town Hall.

Ararat came into being due to it's gold history. It was huge with the Chinese, who came here in their thousands. The Gum San Chinese Heritage Centre tells their story. In the 1860's, in order to avoid the entry tax imposed on the Chinese by the Victorian Govt., unscrupulous ship captains dropped them off at Robe on the South Australian coast. Without maps they somehow made it to Ararat, crossing The Grampians and a lot of other rough country. It is an amazing story. Ararat is also famous for crazy people. J Ward and Aradale are the places to go to learn about the insane. J Ward is the old Ararat Gaol. It was converted from a Gaol in the 1860's to a place to house the criminally insane, those prisoners never to be released for crimes committed. So it was actually part of the health system, but boy were there some nasty  nutters held here. Across town is Aradale, one of Victoria's largest lunatic asylums. It closed in 1993 but the impressive buildings sadly still stand as a decaying reminder of how our mentally ill have been treated. We did a very good tour of J Ward, but Aradale only has tours on Sundays, which didn't fit our schedule. The Orchid House in the Ararat Botanical Gardens was also a wonderful sight. The gardens are set around a lake, right in town, and have BBQ's and picnic areas. It is a really nice setting. The town itself is built along a winding main road, lined with shops and cafes. There are some fantastic heritage buildings and the pub is a great example of art deco architecture.

The name is daunting!

The 1st at Mt. Difficultis an
emu lined Par 4!

Back at Halls Gap, we took a drive out to the Golf Course. It is a 9 hole track cared for by volunteers. It looked in pretty good condition, but its name was ominous, Mt Difficult! But maybe the difficulty was negotiating your way through the hundreds of kangaroos and emus that dotted the course! The other lovely drive we took was south of town towards Dunkeld. We took a turnoff that went up over a pass and down into the Victoria Valley. If I was a sheep, I'd want to live here. 

We left Hall's Gap Thursday morning. It was still cool and overcast. We decided to head for Ballarat via Dunkeld and the Glenelg Hwy.  Carolyn had read about the Royal Mail Hotel in Dunkeld. It has won best regional restaurant in Victoria and Australia. It has two Chefs Hats. Apparently it is owned by one of Victoria's leading barristers, who wanted to keep it in the family, so he spent a few million doing it up, putting in some accommodation and ensuring some of the world's best chefs work there. We got there at lunch time, parked the van alongside the Bentley, the Mercedes and the BMW, took one look at the dining room and the clientele, and decided trackies and T Shirts didn't quite fit in, so we went into the bar and had the best Fish n Chips this side of heaven, served from the same kitchen. We'll be back!!!