Day 292 / 2014 - Moama-Echuca to Shepparton

We have arrived in Shepparton Anne is really excited to be here with more than the reason of just being in a new town.

Leaving Moama-Echuca we had a big distance of 70km to travel. One of the joys of Victoria is it is compact compared to WA, QLD and NT the distance between attractions and towns is not great for instance Moama-Echuca which is near the NSW/Vic border to Melbourne is only 200km. The roads so far in Victoria appear to be in good condition compared to NSW and Queensland making it safer to travel and not knock the vehicles around as much unfortunately first impressions of Victorian drivers is they seem impatient compared to other states we have travelled through.

Shepparton is a large centre with a population of around 30,000 people making it roughly the same size as Bunbury. If you include Mooroopna which is only 8km away it increases to 42,000. We found a Big 4 caravan park on the east side of down on the main highway to Benalla. We booked in and setup on an Ensuite site which we haven't done since the poptop caravan days. They were offering a special deal of an Ensute site for the price of a normal powered site so who were we to argue.

Shepparton is where our granddaughter Kaitlin lives we haven't seen her for about 5 years and Anne was keen to make contact and meet up. We had been in touch with her Mum a few months before organising when to meet. Finally the day arived Anne was so excited Kaitlin had grown so much in 5 years and was now a young lady they spent hours catching up.

While in Shepparton we visited a number of tourist attractions around town. Emerald Bank Leisure Land is located about 5 Km south of town along the Goldburn Hwy. A large Dutch windwill was the centre piece and housed a chocolate shop and cafe. There is also a car museum, plant nursery, garden pots and ornaments and an antique shop. Up the back is a kids adventure park which has a minature train offering rides as well as other fun family things to do.

Continuing on the foodie trail there is also a Chocolate Apple shop just off the Midland Highway which sell apples first dipped in caramel then covered in the most delicious chocolate. There was one apple covered in rocky road. They also sold other local produce such apple juice and condiments. Again on the Southside of town there is a pick your own strawberry farm but when we arrived they had none left to pick and would be another few weeks before any would be ready so we just settled for a coffee instead.

The SPC factory in the middle of town has a wholesale outlet for products that don't quite make the shelf of the supermarkets. These products are sold quite cheap and can be up to 70% off. Most are items which have packet damage or are under or over the specified weight. They also have other products for sale you could do your weeks food shopping here. Shepparton has all the national shopping outlets such as Woollies,Big W, KMart, ect... but if you are in need of some extra specialty shopping Melbourne is only 180KM away about the same distance as from Bunbury to Perth.

We also took a number of day trips to surrounding towns as driving distances between attractions are not great. One trip took us to Euroa which is about 50Km South of Shepparton. About 18km South of Euroa is a large hill called Mount Wombat about 900 metres above sea level accessable by a 4WD track. It is a fairly easy track to negociate except for the last 400 metres which was quite steep. The hilltop is used by the telecommunication industry for relay as well as by aviation to support navigation. From the top you can see for miles and the locals said you can see fireworks in Shepparton on a clear night. We did take a wrong turn on the way back and ended up in Merton. From there we took the scenic back through the alpine hills via Seymour and Nagambie. In the main street of Nagambie is a statue of Black Caviar as Nagambie was the horses birthplace.

We also took a trip to Wangaratta via Benalla and Glenrowan. Bennalla is a small town located about 50Km from Shepparton east along the Midland Highway. The information centre houses the Costume and Pioneer Museum as well as the cell which held Ned Kelly after his final seige with the police at Glenrowan. There is quite a bit of information about Ned from life as a child to his final years as an outlaw where he died at the age of 25 hung for his crimes at Old Melbourne Gaol. Benalla Botanic Garden is also worth a look where it has a large collection of different varieties of Roses on display. We also took in Scones with Jam and Cream and Coffee at the Art Gallery Cafe located on the banks of the lake named after the town.

From Benalla we drove along the Hume Highway east towards Glenrown which is about 15Km further towards Wangaratta. Glenrowan is the actual place of the Kelly gang's last stand and a viscious battle was fourght with the law. Joe Byrne was shot dead and Dan Kelly and Steve Hart were found dead amongst the ruins of the burned out hotel. Only Kelly was taken alive to be tried and convicted for his crimes.

At Glenrowan is a tourist attraction I guess you would call a theme park which contains a number of rooms and outside areas containing computer controlled characters recounting the story of Ned and his gangs final demise during their last stand with police.  Each room has a theme with the first an introduction. The next room was the bar of the hotel where the hostages were kept. Moving to the outside area where the shootout at the hotel followed by moving inside another room where you experience the hotel being set on fire to flush any of the remaining members of the gang out. The final room narrates Ned being hanged. It was a great experience and well worth the money.

From Glenrowan we jumped back onto the Hume and headed for Wangaratta only a few kilometres on. Wangaratta is the regional town size with a population of 26,000 and is the gateway to the Alpine region. There is not much tourist wise at Wangaratta but it is a great base to see the King Valley with its natural beauty and is considered a little part of Italy, a foodies and wine connoisseur delight. We did not go into this area this time around as we felt this is something you could spend a day or more exploring and the time we had wouldn't do it justice so decided to save it for we we come through next year. From Wangaratta we headed back to Shepparton through the Warby ranges and and township of Dookie.

We also visited Bendigo which is in a south westerly direction about 125 Km down the Midland Highway. Bendigo is a large city of 111,000 people. Bendigo is the headquarters for the Bendigo Bank the largest bank based in a regional area. Arriving Bendigo we spied the sign Caravan and Camping Show parking this way so we just had to follow the signs. The caravan show was quite large not quite as big as Perths but still of reasonable size. From there we went onto the centre of town. Benigo use to use trams as public transport similar to Melbourne but was closed down in the early seventies because it was too exspensive to keep running. The locals campained hard to keep it as a tourist attraction which they finally succeeded in. You can catch the Talking Tram 7 times per day running every hour between 10am and 4pm.

We also visited the Chinese Museum. The Chinese migrated to Australia and America during a time of turmoil and poverty in China. It was seen as a way of providing for their families back home. An interesting fact was because they were coming in such large numbers by any means how the state of Victoria imposed a 10 pound fee on any chinese disembarking from a ship as a means to discourage them from coming. The Chinese got around this by landing in Australia at Adelaide or Robe South Australia and walking the 500 Miles to the goldfields. The museum houses a large collection of artifacts and tells the story of chinese life in Bendigo. There is even a cerermonial dragon which comes out each easter is 100 metres in length and carried through the streets by 52 volunteers.

From Shepparton we will travel to Campbellfield in Melbourne so the Insurance assesor can review the damage to our van. Since the quote is so large it needs to be reviewed in person and cannot be access by photographs. Campbellfield is where Reteat is base so they can ask the repairers directly any questions. From Campbellfield we will then head towards Ballarat.