13 September 2013 - Central Caravan Park, Colac, Victoria

Today is Black Friday, black for the superstitious, but for us simply the end of yet another working week and another Friday closer to the end of the month. The relevance of the weekend to us is generally zilch, unless we are seeking the services of tradesmen, and these clever folk tend to reserve their weekends for leisure pursuits and family time. This morning this was a consideration as we considered the days ahead.

Geelong is the location of one of the Lotus Caravan dealers and it is so much easier to consult with people like these either on arrival or departure. Colac is only 113 kilometres west of Geelong and while we agreed we should check this place out, we were not sure that it would engage us beyond a day or two.

And so we left lovely Warrnambool with no real plans, but then that often happens. As we drove through the eastern end of the city, we admired the wonderful modern shopping and service areas of the city, some which have sprung up in our absence, and remarked that although Warrnambool has a population of only about 32,000 it offers so much more and is so much more vibrant that our own New Zealand city of Whangarei which has a population of over 40,000. In fact, if the greater area is included, the population of Northland’s only city is 80,800. While both cities are centres of an expansive rural area, Warrnambool is also a delightful holiday destination and Whangarei more a gateway to holiday destinations beyond, and that does make a difference. Or am I simply looking for excuses. Whatever the case, we do like our friend Hilda’s hometown.

We passed the cheese factory at Allansford, noting that it was the third dairy factory in Warrnambool’s immediate neighbourhood; I remarked a couple of days ago on the one in Koroit and there is also the New Zealand owned Fonterra operation on the western end of the city.  We read in the newspaper today that Bega Cheese, they whose factory is situated, surprisingly at Bega, on the south New South Wales coast, is taking over Warrnambool Cheese & Butter, however after reading the article twice, I was still confused which factory this actually related to. The WCB is in fact the company who owns the Allensford operation.

We passed the turn off where the Great Ocean Road branches off the Princes Highway, and reminisced about our trip last year along that stunning coastline. And it was about here that Chris remarked that the vehicle’s performance was so much better now that the tyres had been rotated, even taking into account the disgusting condition of the road surface, this the A1 highway of Australia. He lamented that he should have had this done back in Geraldton, thousands and thousands of kilometres ago rather than persevere with the waltzing and wandering of the rig on these Cooper Tyres; now they ride on the front and perform so much better than when they were rear drivers. Of course any fellow travellers of the same ilk will wonder why we have half and half. Refer to our adventures at Tom Price, Western Australia, earlier in the year and then you may be more sympathetic.

I had thought we should stop by the falls on the Hopkins River which makes its way into the sea on the eastern boundary of the city, however my map was misleading; the falls are eleven or seventeen kilometres off the Princes Highway, depending which access road you choose. I could tell that my chauffeur preferred not to dally off route, so we left the falls for another time, should that happen.

Forty seven kilometres out of Warrnambool, we arrived in Terang and stopped to use the conveniences, delighted to discover such a charming rural town, with many old buildings along its wide tree lined avenues to remind one that this was once a much bigger centre. Today with a population of about 2,300, it is still an important service centre.  The first dwelling in the township was built in 1840 although the township was not developed until the late 1850s. The avenues of trees were planted later and several of these are now under the protection of the National Trust. This surprised me; I did not know that trees could be thus classified, in the same vein as heritage buildings. Terang is well-known through the state for its horseracing carnival and today we noted the racetrack and several other features that reinforced the existance of the local industry.

A further twenty two kilometres brought us to Camperdown, located at the foot of Mount Leura, another of the many rural settlements which lie within the “Lakes & Craters” region. Mount Leura, like the other volcanic cones we have seen over the past week, is dormant, although one does wonder how “dormant” any volcano really is.

In the last census, Camperdown had a population of 3,463, and like Terang, has some fine old buildings stretched out along a wide main street. Alas, in Camperdown the buildings are visibly dying and one day soon, they may be condemned or simply collapse. Like Terang too, the elm trees along the main route are impressive and all part of the heritage, although I found the smaller settlement to have more charm.

The first British settlers arrived in the area from Tasmania after 1835 to establish sheep runs. The first house in Camperdown was built in 1853, the town having been surveyed in 1851; the area has been long settled by Europeans. Here the dairy industry is shared with tourism, as this, like Colac, is one of the gateways into the Otway Ranges, the Great Ocean Road and the “Shipwreck Coast”.

We continued on across the area known internationally as the Kanawinka Global Geopark, the world’s third largest volcanic plain. Around the smaller settlements of Pomborneit and Stoneyford, the farm land was littered with volcanic stones, a messier scene than we had seen further west. These settlements lie immediately to the south of Lake Corangamite, the Southern Hemisphere’s largest permanent salt lake and a cluster of other crater lakes. More superlatives!

At Stonyford we saw the strangest sight; Stonyford Tractor Wreckers. Here were rows and rows of old tractors, brought here to live out their dying days as their bits and pieces are slowly amputated and traded. The family owned business was established in 1958 and their stock covers three and a half acres. On first glance, I thought it to be some sort of orderly farm machinery museum, but it is not. Here on can surely source any part for any tractors ever invented let alone put into operation. And if you happy to have a piece of farm machinery lying about your back yard, I am sure they would be delighted to buy it off you. It was just as well we did not stop; I may have never prised Chris away!

I was surprised to find how large Colac was, named after the lake on which it sits and a city since 1960, today with a population of 8,696 down from the 2006 census which reported 10,857. I do wonder what made over 2,000 people leave town; fortunately the gap is not too evident to the casual tourist.

We arrived before lunch and found this caravan park quite easily although our Tomtom took us a rather longwinded way, offering glimpses of the lake and then taking us away from the centre of town, giving us a rather strange impression of the place. In the end we were back close to the Princes Highway, or at least within sight of it. As showground camps go, this has to be the best one we have been to; the amenities are not only spotless but quite up-to-date. Needless to say, it is the cheapest in town, although the other two are not that much more.

After lunch we popped back into town, first calling into the Visitor Centre where we gathered some information on the area and Geelong, then walked up and down the main street which is surprisingly long and busy, but then it doubles as the A1 Highway.

As we admired the old stone and brick buildings, we discussed my wonder at the old buildings when I first visited Europe, having come from New Zealand where old stone buildings are a rarity. Australian’s in Europe for the first time cannot be so gobsmacked as I was; in fact Australian’s really miss out on the wonder New Zealanders experience when they visit their ancestral home.

Colac was first settled by Europeans in 1837 and proclaimed a town in 1848, so it too is a well-established place. As so oft, such comments are generally made with total disregard to the fact that semi-nomadic aboriginal people roamed the area for thousands of years before Europeans even thought about coming here.

We have enough activities to keep us busy here for several days however the weather might put the kibosh on these. The forecast is not good and it has been so cold. This morning it was a little under 5 degrees on rising and barely reached 12 degrees by midday. Here at Colac, it is not supposed to plunge below 7 degrees tonight, and will apparently rise to a tropical 16 degrees during the daytime. Perhaps a good day for a brisk bush walk?