14 September 2013 - Central Caravan Park, Colac, Victoria

Roused by the alarm, we were up, breakfasted and outside the local Beaurepairs centre before our scheduled 8 am appointment. I had vaguely suggested to Chris that I stay back and prepare lunch during his absence; however it was soon clear he expected me to suffer the early hour with him. Fortunately the suggested task time was reduced to an hour, and then in reality, half an hour, so we were back in our warm caravan soon after 8.30 am, the landcruiser’s wheels now realigned and with no further excuses to offer for imperfect road performance. Except… perhaps the suspension needs looking at? Oh my! Isn’t there always something to worry about, or at least to find to worry about?

View from Red Rock

We did not venture out to explore until after 10am, when the bitter chill of the day was starting to subside. We took the road back toward Warrnambool, turning north and driving up through dairy country and the small settlements of Cororooke and Coragulac, the first with a prominent Fonterra Milk factory, the second with a lovely old Catholic church.

Our initial destination was Red Rock where over forty eruption points within the seven major crater lakes and scoria cones have been identified.

There are two lookouts on Red Rock, the volcanic structure reminding me of those dotted across the city of Auckland, New Zealand. Like them the lookouts are situated high on the rim of craters and but unlike them, offer a diversity of scenes; beautiful farmland stretching out so far, the far off dark line of the Otway Ranges to the south and directly below to the east, a beautiful bluestone homestead and Lego-like figures busy about with a tractor. From here one looks over Lake Corangamite, Victoria’s largest inland lake aside from the superlatives reported yesterday, and three volcanic mountains: Mt Elephant, Mt Porndon and Mt Sugarloaf. The lake is apparently three times saltier than the sea and covers as area of 234 square kilometres with a circumference of about 150 kilometres. Needless to say we chose not to circumnavigate the lake; the roads would be even further.

Lake Beeac

We descended from the lookout and drove further north past the much smaller Lake Beeac, milky white because of its extreme salinity. From the northern shore looking south, the scene was quite wonderful; the peace of the lake and the many varied coloured stripes of cloud.

Beeac, yet another tiny rural settlement, sits on the eastern shore of the lake and offers a new attraction to draw the tourists; a Windmill Park. As part of the town’s 150^th anniversary, proactive residents decided to celebrate the many innovative windmills that once operated in the area. Such contraptions have been vital to the survival of the country, not just here, but across this nation where water is such a scarce commodity.

There were six windmill makers in Beeac through the years 1891 to 1946. They were blacksmiths and engineers and also fabricated other agricultural essentials; tanks, stands and tin lined wooden troughs. Most of them supplied other engineering and commercial services as well. The windmills have been donated by property owners in the Beeac district and all of the six makers is represented in the exhibition.

While we were reading the many interpretative panels, a chap arrived with gardening tools and eventually engaged us in conversation, initially asking us what we thought of the exhibition. It turned out that he was one of the main instigators who had done considerable historical research to put the facts together. We ended up chatting at some length with this man, a wealth of knowledge about the area and altogether a fascinating chap.

Windmills in Beeac

It was he who suggested we call into Meredith Park as we drove south back toward Colac. The reserve is situated on the northern shore of Lake Colac, directly across from the city. Camping is allowed along the shore and I would have suggested we stay there rather than extend here at the showgrounds for another night if the temperatures were warmer, however I am no masochist.

Lake Colac is the largest freshwater lake in Victoria, with a surface area of 2,700 hectares and like Lake Beeac, more of less circular, as opposed to Lake Corangamite which spreads its watery tentacles in every direction. Its circumference is a mere 33 kilometres and has an average depth of two and a half metres, although was quite dry back in about 2008 according to our informant in Beeac.

It was still early but I had been hungry for at least an hour, so we pulled out the eski and dined with views across the lake toward the far off Otways and chatted about life as we do.

Back in Colac we decided to visit the Botanic Gardens, situated right on the shore of the lake, covering fifteen hectares. The land for these gardens was put aside for the purpose in 1865, established three years later and then in 1910, Melbourne’s famous landscape designer William Guilfoyle, was invited to redesign the gardens. Due to fund shortages in the following years, the reworking of the gardens was not completed until 1984.

However for all the delay, they are quite delightful and well worth the time to wander through. There are more than 10,000 plant specimens in the park, including a few familiar New Zealand plants and five trees which have been placed on the National Trust of Victoria’s Significant Tree Register. Cars are allowed access to the park although there are “No Parking” signs just about everywhere. Personally I prefer that Botanic Gardens be left to walkers rather than vehicle traffic, but then that is just my opinion.

We spent some time criss-crossing the park and finally returned to our landcruiser, parked outside the gardens, along the waterfront, a busy pathway today with families out enjoying the improved weather.

It was still early in the afternoon so we set off for another spot on the town map, the Joseph Paatsch Reserve, a small area of scrublands along a creek donated by Mr Paatsch, of course, and Bulla Dairy Foods. Further donations and the efforts by the local Rotary Club have developed a well graded 600 metre walking path which meanders from one corner of the block to another. There have been numerous plantings and a mass of willows have been removed from the waterways.  We enjoyed our little walk through the reserve; it is quite pretty but will be much more so in a few more years.

We had, in our travels, identified all the supermarkets in town; Coles, Woolworths, IGA and Aldi. Spoilt for choice we called into the relatively new Woolworths and bought a rotisserie chicken for dinner.

Back at camp we were entertained by a couple of remote control planes dog fighting high in the sky to our north, and for some reason I thought about my oldest grandson. I think Jackson would have had us go investigate further. We left the overgrown kids to their pursuit and settled in, ready to watch the Rugby Test tonight between the Wallabies and the Argentinian Pumas being played in Perth tonight. Maybe the Wallabies will redeem themselves tonight?