Hi from Bendigo

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Hi everyone
Hope you all had a good holiday.
We came north from Melbourne for some warmer weather, and we sure got it! Up to 45 degrees at Shepparton. We got their hottest day for over 6 years. The tar on the roads melted, and our air conditioner in the van and the car got a workout. We went exploring by car on the hottest days. We enjoyed our week in Shepparton, met some nice people, and had "Happy Hours" on the new grass by our van each night. (A contractor had been putting ready lawn down and had some over, he was staying at the camping ground, so the area by our van was the place, all the rest of the camp was dusty and dry). We visited the SPC Admona factory shop and stocked up on cheap tinned /packet groceries, most below half price. They make Goulburn products.
We moved on to Echuca / Moama for 3 nights - they are twin towns each side of the Murray River. We stayed at Moama, which is in NSW,the boarder is the Murray River. Again it was hot. There was a nice pool we relaxed in after a day out exploring. We went on an old paddlesteamer, to the holden Museum, and visited 'The Great Aussie Beer Shed', where the was an amazing collection of beer cans and other beer related items. We drove north up the 'Long Paddock', the Cobb, as far as Mathoura and Picnic Point, again by the Murray River. West we went as far as Cohuna. We drove to Gubbower Island, the biggest inland island in Australia. There were lots of waterlilies growing in the river there. On the way back we called at Kow Swamp - there were lots of birds, ibis, pelicans and others.
Yesterday we came down to Bendigo, another gold town. We went down an authentic gold mine, and rode the "talking tram". Today we visited the Golden Dragon Museum - about the Chinese on the goldfields and their lives after. There were lots of colourful chinese dragons, which are used each year here at Easter at a parade, and also some valuable furniture and screens. After that we went to the Bendigo Pottery, established in 1858, and still working today. Their kilns were amazing, we went inside one and it is surprising how much room there is. It is very windy here today, and their old iron roof was lifting!
Tomorrow we go back to Melbourne for the night. We board the ferry to Tasmania at 6.15am Saturday morning. Let's hope this wind dies down by then! It is still very warm here, it got to 35 degrees today. The wind has stirred up the dry dust, so the air is quite hazy.
Having trouble tonight with computer , so will try to publish photos and map separately.
Cheers Lynne and Chris

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Photos

All kitted out
61 meters below ground in the Central Deborah Gold mine at Bendigo

Going down
We had a private tour as no one else turned up at the time.

Tram barn museum
Bendigo had a number of trams under reconstruction.

Geographic Centre of Victoria
WE came across this place today on our way to the LynneVale vineyard (that was closed)

Bendigo Pottery Est 1858
Australia's oldest working pottery.

One of the kilns
You could see where the fires were lit, wood and coal was burnt.

Shepparton Campsite
Our patch of grass.

Happy Hours
Well attended each night by a friendly lot.

Cow art
Shepparton has lots of painted cows dotted around the parks, they get moved around from time to time.

Yabbies
Peter showed us how he catches yabbies in the irrigation dams.

Got some!
A chicken carcus was used for bait. He got about 6 in each net this day.

Cooked
Ready to eat for happy hour with crackers.

Hot!
Our dashboard on the day we drove to Tocumwal - 45 degrees outside. We stopped for lunch at an airconditioned golf course - some people were trying to play golf!

Whroo Gold Mine
The balaclava Mine, the main shaft was 122m, 1,ooo,ooo pounds worth of cold came out of here.

Whroo tunnel
A railway line ran through this tunnel to take rocks to the stamper to extract the gold.

Canberra 1902
We went on this old wood fired steam paddlesteamer on the Murray River out of Echuca.

Paddlesteamers at Echuca
Old boats in front of the old 3 tiered wharf.

old Red Gum Log Wagon
made 1926 at Gulpa, used to be pulled by 12 horses. Donated to Mathoura by Mr Jim Crump. The girl in the info centre by this was Kelly Crump, her father was Chris Crump!

The Great Aussie Beer Shed
Echuca had this museum with 16,000 beer cans abd related other interesting stuff.

2 Furphy's Farm Water Carts
Infront of the NZ collection of beer cans. These carts were used for irrigating.

Comments

[Linda and Den]

Great comments and travels
Hi Lynne and Chris, once again we have enjoyed reading your very detailed entry. You are certainly seeing some interesting things. Thanks for all the effort to share them with us. Keep up the great "work" and good luck for your trip to Tassie.