South Gippsland (15/03/15 - 19/04/15)

What a lovely part of the country....a little gem, in fact and on our list for a return visit.

This large rural region is best known for it's farming, primary production such as mining, power generation and for its tourist spots such as Wilsons Promontory (quaintly known as "The Prom" or " Prom Country") the small gold mining township of Walhalla and the Strzelecki Ranges.   We visited all three.

In regards to mining,  today it is about Coal Seam Gas Exploration (CSG) which is of great concern to the residents of the region after discovering (as early as 2012) that there were a growing number of exploration licences being granted to exploration companies which covered local farming properties.

In order to do something about it,  local landowners and business people met with Drew Hutton, the Queensland founder of the environment group called "Lock the Gate".  As a consequence many local business and properties display the "Lock the Gate" sign today as an indication of their stand on CSG.

Not sure of the legalities of the sign, whether it actually means anything in a court of law.   You can view the mission and principles of The Lock the Gate Alliance by clicking here.  I am not advocating anything here, I just think it would be awful to destroy people's properties and livelihoods in this beautiful part of the world by CSG exploration which is done by a method called "fracking".....doesn't seem right.  Anyway, enough said on that subject, will get off my soap box now.

There is so much to write about South Gippsland I will be here for a month of Sundays so that instead of that, I thought I would do a highlight photo trail of our time here.

Warragul Market

Warragul - a small town about 100kms from Melbourne.  When having coffee at the Warragul markets, a local we were talking with asked if we knew what WWW stands for and then jokingly told us it stands for Wet Windy Warragul.  But the day we were there we had beautiful weather and came away with lots of goodies...all edible of course.

Warragul are the best markets I have ever been to, even better than the Eumundi Markets in Queensland.

The boys are off for a ride

We stayed at Moe for 11 days, using it as a base to explore the area.  It was a good choice because not only did we get a good daily rate because the place was just about empty but we were allowed to use four sites which meant that we could "top and tail" the vans.

Not only did we explore the area from here but went on many lovely walks around the place.  A local told us that Moe is going through a downturn as many employers have closed and there are not many jobs now.

Cat Mural

On one of our drives we went to Mirboo North, a small farming town on the main highway between Morwell and Leongatha.  Situated in the Strzelecki ranges, Mirboo North is an agriculture area with beautiful scenery.

It is close to Thorpdale which supplies up to 80% of the states brushed potatoes.  It also has the Grand Ridge Brewery...a bit early for beer but John bought a mixed six pack and Nick bought some stout for him and some wheat beer for me.

The town has some faded murals....nothing as spectacular as the murals in Sheffield, Tasmania.

We also went for a drive on the Grand Ridge Road in the Strzelecki Ranges which had stunning views of farmlands and forests.  Have a video of the drive...it was narrow with lots of bends and I think we were driving a little too fast .....I have some of it on video, which I can't post here unfortunately.

The colours of Autumn

The girls...living the dream in their caravans

We found these lovely free range eggs called...... " Glorious Goodies".  The advert says that 'the chickens are green grass fed, feed naturally, are free to run, flap, squawk, sit, play or dust baths in the beautiful Korumburra Hills'   

It is true...they are lovely eggs with very hard shells.

Well, on our travels we actually came across the farm....and yes folks, there they are... the chickens and their caravan homes.  We met the farmer, Emma Brown before this and when we met her again at the Coal Creek Market and told her we found her chicken and caravans and she said that we should have called in, that she loves having visitors.  I tell you, everyone we met in South Gippsland were very friendly, helpful and likeable.

Sunset at Leongatha

We went for lunch in Morwell and found this restaurant....rich red walls, tapestries, lovely crockery...and what did you have....pies. Actually choose it because it had a fireplace and it was in the front room, not in the restaurant and it wasn't lit anyway.

On the Station at Korumburra

The view out the window of the train. 

Well... there is much more to tell you, but that will be the next post.