Bendigo Vic

Bendigo March 23, 2015

Last ones (well, almost) out of the van park this morning, funny how easily one slips back into ones old but not so bad habits!

Anyhow, we headed south down the Long Track (Hume Highway to you), fuelled up at Albury and continued on to the Violet Town turnoff. We stopped in this little town for a rest - too late really for coffee and definitely too early for lunch - so settled on the coffee and a muffin instead. More motorbikes lined up in front of us. It seems that the Ulysses motorcycle clan is all descending on Wodonga for their annual meet and show-off day. Some 5000 of them reputedly going. Will there be enough Chardonnay in town for them all?

Here’s one man’s ride:

Worlds Flashiest Indian. Violet Town Vic

Here’s a few more, talk about doing it tough:

Violet Town Vic

From Violet Town one has to wend and wiggle one’s way as always through the back-blocks of Victoria to get to a major city, Bendigo. Actually we had booked the van park at some place called Marong which is 15km out-of-town on the road to Mildura. Only took something like 5 1/2 hours to go 360km, but I can’t complain, the back-blocks are actually more interesting than the superhighway. It’s odd though, the place looks as dry as a bone and lifeless but we kept crossing over these irrigation channels running bank-to-bank with water. Also there are huge stacks of hay piled up and then you come to a place where they have huge shed full of the stuff.

After a late lunch of roast turkey sandwiches we went to checkout Marong, which took 52 seconds so we went the 15k back into town (Bendigo) to see what was still open, which equated to the information centre and the building that dominates the town: St Mary’s Cathedral

It’s a truly massive structure, bigger than a lot we saw in England and Europe, biggest difference was that there were two tourists inside not 2000! Interestingly enough, they started building it in 1897 and finished it in 1977. Actually they completed the main part of the building in 1901 but ran out of money so they just bricked up the end where the nave and tower and stuff should have been. Then when they had funds, the dusted off the old plans and continued with the building, and apart from the sandstone being several shades lighter, it’s hard to tell that it hasn’t been there  all along. They also reckon that in 2015 it costs $1000 a day to keep the building open. 

St Marys Bendigo Vic

St Marys Bendigo Vic

St Marys Bendigo Vic

Woof! Gargoyle on St Marys Bendigo Vic