19 September 2013 - Sundowner Rockbank Caravan Park, Rockbank, Victoria

In typical Clarke fashion, we set off on a reccy trip this morning for the Spirit of Tasmania ferry terminal, preferring to get ourselves lost without the caravan rather than with. And it was just as well we hadn’t relied on our TomTom on the day, because, in his normal style he took us by the scenic route. TomTom correctly guided us onto the Western Freeway and Western  Ring Road from which we were able to see the skyline of Melbourne’s beautiful skyline through a smoggy haze, then onto the West Gate Freeway and on to the West Gate Bridge. We have crossed this magnificent bridge before but somehow today it rose more spectacularly above the maze of roads, the expansive areas of industry and the Yarra River just north of its mouth into Port Phillip Bay. The main river span is 336 metres in length, fifty eight metres above the water level. The total length of the bridge is 2.5826 kilometres, making it twice as long as the Sydney Harbour Bridge. Construction was completed in 1978, while Chris was still living in Melbourne and was in the news a few months after we arrived in Australia as the place where a deranged father threw his four year old child to her death. It is quite a bridge.

We were correctly guided off the city side of the bridge, through a number of tight intersections and then through the residential area of Port Melbourne, a small city of charming townhouses, beautifully landscaped, populated with speed bumps and even tighter little corners. As I said, it was good that we did not have the caravan in tow. When we finally emerged onto the correct road leading onto the ferry terminal, we were able to recheck our map and see where we should have come. Needless to say, I will override this navigation device which all too often thinks it can brighten up our day. While in the area, we established also that there was no appropriate space to hang about for the day leading into the late afternoon loading. The options seem to be either to pay a surcharge here at the caravan park for a late departure or to hang out in a Service Centre beside the Western Ring Road. However we have a week to consider this.

From here we drove back along the boulevard toward St Kilda from which we could see a dozen or so kite surfers making the most of the wind and the choppy bay. We passed by the old hotel where Chris and his first wife briefly played host back in a far distant life, and then headed back again, westward and across the West Gate Bridge and south to Werribee.

Werribee is a suburb of Melbourne, thirty two kilometres to the south of the CBD and back on the Princes Highway toward Geelong, the city we left only yesterday. In 2011 the census revealed the population had climbed to 37,737, a far cry from the town Chris frequented during his three or four years door knocking to sell insurance. We parked and walk up and down the main street of this busy bustling wonderful town, calling into the Information Centre and the local Art Gallery where we viewed the current exhibition, titled “Sustain”, artwork made from recycled objects or about sustainability; some pleasing and some not worth the effort, in our opinion.

Werribee Mansion

Werribee, first named Wyndham, was established as an agricultural settlement in the 1850s, and two of those early pastoralists, Thomas and Andrew Chirnside built their beautiful Italianate style mansion between 1874 and 1877. This amazingly grand building is obscenely huge and while I accept that the family would have had to share the space with the crowd of servants required to polish the furnishings, I am still baffled by the extravagance of such a building. Chris tried to explain to me that was all about status and nothing to do with need, but alas, I tend to operate on need and think that everyone else should as well.

The sandstone mansion and the working buildings which supported a large farm workforce, along with the land about and that across at Point Cook, slightly north east on the coast, remained in the family through a string of kin as tragedy and inter-family sales occurred.  Ownership of Werribee Park by the Chirnside family ceased in 1922 when it was sold firstly to a wealthy Western District grazier, and a year later to the Roman Catholic Bishops of Australia to be developed as a seminary. It continued to operate as such right through to 1973, when the Victorian Government purchased the property and opened it as a tourist attraction in 1977. 

Today it is operated by Parks Victoria, and open to the public in a variety of fashions. There is the rather exclusive five-star Mansion Hotel and Conference Centre which is probably leased to those who run the commercial establishment, the Werribee Open Range Zoo, a contemporary sculpture walk and of course the heritage house which is open to view for a fee.

The ten hectares of superb formal gardens are widely attributed to the busy WR Guilfoyle, who managed to put his mark on so many gardens across the state. Adjacent to the mansion is the Victoria State Rose Garden, winner of the World Federation of Rose Societies Award for Garden Excellence, internationally acclaimed and home to 5,000 roses. The gardens are maintained by volunteers and while I could see there was need for a bit of weed killer here and there, they really are quite beautiful, even today with few blooms visible. In another month or two, they should be spectacular.

We drove down to Werribee South at the mouth of the Werribee River and ate our lunch out of the wind, gazing out over the expanse of Port Phillip Bay before driving on around to Werribee Park. We were amazed at how extensive the market gardens were, growing cauliflowers, cabbages and the like, covering all the land between the Princes Highway and the bay. The gardens are cultivated almost to the road edge and the bitumen is brown with the dirt off the farm machinery wheels. I imagine this is a hell of a place to be in the summer when the mud turns to dust and the heat lies over the land. Today however, we were much taken with the extent of the produce, surely guaranteed a market of over four million mouths in the city alone.

Near the entrance to the park, we could see that the National Equestrian Centre was busy with an event; the Australian Show Jumping Championships are currently taking place. There are hundreds of horses there, perhaps even thousands, and all the horse trucks, floats, tents and other paraphernalia that goes with it. The Werribee Park National Equestrian Centre, officially opened in 1984, is an international standard sporting facility for equestrian events, including Equitana and the World Polo Championships.

At the Park, we enjoyed the gardens, the sculptural walk and wandered along the top of the river bank, from where we could see the heritage orchard dating from the 1870s. Behind the mansion we found ourselves in the old laundry and soon enjoying a holograph show; a little laundress from the late 1880s telling us all about the workings of a grand laundry of the day and something of the history, including the gruesome story of how the first Chirnside shot himself right there in the laundry. To make sure we were suitably impressed, she added that his widow in turn died of burns after her hair caught fire. The house has many stories and we probably should have taken a tour to learn more.

However I was really glad that we had made the effort to drive out here and wander about. The weather had held off and our day was certainly beyond expectations and in fact, quite unplanned.

Back at camp, we contacted friends of Chris’s from Sunbury; we are lunching with them on Saturday, and looking forward to that. We also caught up with my parents on Skype before they head away for ten days in their motorhome. I do hope we are still as active when we reach our mid-eighties.