An Aussie Pub Crawl

Australians have, in my view, mastered the art of the corner pub.

In virtually every town across the country, you'll find corners punctuated with a grand architectural statement.

Some towns are blessed with multiple pubs and almost to the last, they're grand and ornate.

The Provincial Hotel above, is a beauty I photographed in the old old gold mining town of Ballarat - a city blessed with superb architecture - much of it built during the wealthy gold mining era.

In Kyneton, a small town about 90 minutes north of Melbourne just off the Calder Highway, I spotted these two beauties from a later period. Top is the Newmarket Hotel and the bottom image is the Shamrock Hotel, both in the main street of town, a few steps apart.

Back in Ballarat, I stepped inside The Grand Hotel, lured in my its etched glass windows that reflect back the other side of the historic street.

And also in Ballarat, The George Hotel, a stately beauty with elaborate verandahs.

Bendigo, another city with a wealth of hefty and ornate architecture from the gold mining era, delivered this corner beauty near the Arts Quarter.

And this old treasure clings to a backstreet corner in Kyneton.

Little Trentham - half way between Woodend and Daylesford, about an hour north of Melbourne, is home to the old Cosmopolitan (above), which still operates a popular restaurant and beer garden; and the sturdy bulk of an old main street hotel (upper image), which has long-since ceased operation as a pub and is now an antique shop filled with terrific furniture and a quirky selection of taxidermy animals and an old ride-on Skippy the Bush Kangaroo.

I've written about Australian pubs on this blog before. Just click on The Australian Crawl and Aussie Pubs in the label line below if you'd like to see more.

Sightseeing in Australia - 9

Fruit and custard tarts were all the excuse I needed to visit the single cafe in the tiny village of Macedon, just off Calder Highway, between Melbourne and Bendigo in the Macedon Ranges. A post office opened here in 1859 and until 1870, it was known as Black Forest. When the Ash Wednesday bush fires swept through in February 1983, many of the town's homes were destroyed. Today the population hovers around 1450. Woodend is not far from Macedon. It's a much bigger though and I visit most years to see family there. It's a pleasant spot about an hour north of Melbourne and conventiently, on the Melbourne-Bendigo commuter line so the big city is a leisurely train ride away. I use it as a base for my forays into the Victorian countryside.

The popular spa town of Daylesford is another Victorian gem; and it's here you'll find the grand old Convent Gallery, close to Wombat Hill and the Botanic Gardens. It was originally built in the 1860s as a private residence for the Gold Commissioner and was later sold to the Catholic Church in the 1880s. They set it up as a convent and boarding school, which operated for almost a hundred years. It lay deserted for some time after that, until artist, Tina Banitska discovered it and took on the astonishing renovation project, which now stands completed. The Convent today features several art galleries and shops, the Bad habits Cafe, the Altar Bar, ghost tours and a wedding function centre.

I discovered the tiny Southwest Queensland town of Eulo in 2008, when I visited Cunnamulla, 67km to the east. Little more than a pub, a general store and a huddle of houses, it's home to around 70 people. Every August though, people come from near and far for a day out at the Paroo Lizard Race Track, which is marked by this distinctive statue of a giant frilled lizard, proving yet again, that the Aussies will bet on just about anything.

Sightseeing in Australia - 8

I don't know why I spend so much time trying to photograph Australian gum trees - it's not as if we don't have plenty of the good old Eucalypts in New Zealand after all, but there's something special about them in their own Aussie environment; and they're so quintessentially Australian. Call it a challenge - and it is most definitely that. I have come home with hundreds of photos of gum trees and most have ended up in the delete bin. Turns out it's actually quite difficult to capture all those forms and shadows without it looking like...well.... a boring solid mass of trees. I was reasonably happy with this shot - taken one soft, sunny morning on a massive drive around the Fleurieu Peninsula, south of Adelaide in 2007. If you just happen to be travelling to Adelaide, I'd strongly advise you to pick up a rental car and make a day of it - better still a couple of days because there are plenty of wineries, beautiful landscapes and interesting towns to visit. The south of the peninsula also gives you access to Kangaroo Island. I love Melbourne's Flinders Street - that one mile long (exactly they tell me) stretch named after explorer, Matthew Flinders, that runs almost parallel to the Yarra River. It's where you'll find the incredibly busy Flinders Railway Station which is, in my view, just about one of the best people-watching places on the planet; and just across the road, Federation Square with its galleries, cafes, restaurants and events. I'm heading across the Tasman in a few weeks' time and you can be reasonably certain that I'll be spending an unnatural amount of time hanging out here with my camera. This is the very handsome State Library of Queensland in Brisbane, which is located in front of the Queensland Museum of Art. It opened after extensive redevelopment in 2006 at the hands of Australian architectural practice, Donovan Hill Peddle Thorp. In 2007, it was voted Australian Building of the Year by the Royal Australian Institute of Architects. I spent half a day in both buildings back in 2008, on my way home from a wild adventure in the Queensland Outback. Brisbane, it must be said, seemed tame and very civilised by comparison. A perfect little building in the Victorian town of Malmsbury - little more than a speck on the map, with just 587 people (or thereabouts), 96km northwest of Melbourne. Gold was discovered here in 1858 and the town became a centre for diggers on their way to Bendigo and Castlemaine. I discovered it in 2010, when I hit the road in rural Victoria with a map, a camera and an assortment of drinks and snacks. From Woodend, an hour north of Melbourne, I headed north past Kyneton, and turned off the highway, heading for Malmsbury, then in a giant loop back to the south, and north again to Woodend. It was one of those magnificent days of taking ten hours to do a trip that would normally take 3-4 hours - stopping all along the way to explore and take photographs. My idea of heaven.

Sightseeing in Australia - 7

When gold was discovered towards Bendigo and ballarat in the 1850s, Woodend became the main throughfare through the Black Forest. It sits half way between Melbourne and Bendigo and today has a population of around 3,200. Like many Victorian towns, it has some lovely historic buildings - this is one of my favourites - the gigantic Catholic Church that overlooks the rest of the town from a small rise. Woodend is a popular commuting town and every morning the train from Bendigo to Melbourne is filled with hundreds of Woodend residents, who work in the city. I took a shine to Castlemaine the very first time I visited. I was on a drive to Bendigo - on a day that hit 40 degrees and left me and exhausted melting, wreck - but I hit Castlemaine early, just as the shops were opening at 9am, before the heat reached its peak. Established in 1851 around 40km south of Bendigo, it quickly became a gold boom town. Today it has a population of around 7,000 and is home to the oldest continuously operating theatre in mainland Australia - the Theatre Royal (1856). I found an amazing household secondhand store here - more of a barn really - with the biggest collection of tools and light fittings I've ever seen.

Whenever I'm in Australia, I grab a car and head for the countryside. As much as I adore Australia's big cities, I also love discovering little towns and settlements that spread out from the larger centres. I can spend whole days just driving and stopping at will to take photographs. This was one stop I made at a tiny settlement called Greendale - little more than a pub, a general store, a speckling of farm houses and these old grain houses (?), which were for sale. I quite like the idea of a snazzy conversion but at 81km north west of Melbourne (in the shire of Moorabool) and a population of just 400 or so, I thought it might be stretching romanticism a little too far.

And speaking of Melbourne, this is the bright green entry to Ezard design store. I've walked the streets of Melbourne photographing for hours on end, more times than I can count and I never tire of it. Everything from the architecture, the people, street scenes, cafes and restaurants, signage, shop fronts, street art - you name and I'll probably have a photo of it. I fantasise about spending several months in Melbourne doing nothing more than this - and finally, later in 2011, I'll be one step closer to just that.

Sightseeing in Australia - 6

When I arrived in Adelaide for the first time 2007, I never expected to see pink spring blossoms and a bounty of lush green grass - South Australia after all, is one of the driest places in Australia. But up in the Adelaide Hills, things are a little different - cooler for a start - and just twenty minutes from Adelaide City, you'll find plenty of vineyards, wineries, farmlands and artist studios. not to mention cute little villages with names like Birdwood, Stirling, Hahndorf and Lobethal. I took this photograph in one of the small towns we passed through. This commanding tower belongs to one of the buildings of the University of Ballarat, in the city of Ballarat, Victoria. Founded in 1870, it's the third oldest centre of higher learning in Australia. Over 25,000 students attend courses in a number of different campuses. This building is right in the heart of the city and I was so busy walking backwards so I could fit the whole tower in my camera lens, that I tripped on a doorstep behind me and just about concussed myself on the massive stone wall of another old architectural beauty - of which Ballarat has a bounty. It was while I was driving to Ballarat in 2010, that I passed through the cute little town of Creswick, 18km north of Ballarat and 129km northwest of Melbourne. I HAD to stop. There were so many divine old limestone buildings begging to be photographed - many of them a legacy of the town's early wealth. Named after the three Creswick brothers, who started a large sheep station in the area in 1842, it was at its peak during the Victorian gold rush of the 1850s. It had a population of 25,000 back then.

I visit Daylesford often - every time I visit Victoria in fact, because it's not too far from Woodend (an hour north of Melbourne) where I usually stay with family. Daylesford is to Melbourne what Akaroa is to Christchurch, and Waiheke is to Auckland - the perfect weekend getaway, close enough to be convenient and far enough away to be 'of a different world.' Every weekend it's packed with incoming BMWs, Porches, Mercedes and the like and the many classy boutique accommdations and designer stores do a roaring trade. Today it's known as Victoria's Spa Town - which probably originated from the fact that nearby Hepburn Springs (a small village to the north), has long been renowned for its natural spring mineral spas. If you're visiting Melbourne, it's well worth making an overnighter to Daylesford as they also have great markets, cafes and restaurants. The photograph above is of one of their terrific old Aussie pubs.

Sightseeing in Australia - 4

I'd hate to count the number of hours I've spent walking the streets of inner city Melbourne with my camera. I visit at least once a year and regardless of the weather, I find endless inspiration in the people, the buildings, the colour, the movement - it never stops. It's easy, it;s familiar - yet at the same time, different enough from New Zealand to be endlessly interesting to me. I usually stay at the small commuter town of Woodend, an hour north of Melbourne on the main train commute. From there, I either train into the city, or I leap in the car and drive for miles and miles and miles, around rural Victoria, exploring the many small towns and villages along the way. Some days, when Victoria winds up the temperature, it can be an arduous business - but nothing air conditioning or a wound-down car window can't fix These Aboriginal shields were part of a stunning display at the Museum of South Australia in Adelaide. I spent a long time here and had time permitted, I would have made a return visit.

I photographed this local couple outside the Eulo Queen, an old hotel in the tiny town of Eulo in the southwest Queensland outback. I was on my way to the opal mines at Yowah and stopped off for a short sprint around town, a natter with a few of the locals and a peek inside this historic hotel.

Sightseeing in Australia - 3

This, people, is the famous Hanging Rock of the book and movie fame, "Picnic at Hanging Rock." It's located close to the Victorian town of Woodend, about an hour north of Melbourne, that I visit every year to see family. While the story in 'Picnic at Hanging Rock' is fictional, there is definitely something about this place - or maybe it's because I found it hard to separate the fiction from the fact. Either way, the first time I visited, I kept walking around and up the mysterious rocky outcrop half expecting to see the ghosts of schoolgirls. The school that features in the story by the way, is based on a real school not too far from the rock. Today there's a large domain here - and a racecourse - and it's a popular family picnic spot, complete with numerous quite tame kangaroos that hang about. Back in 2008, I took part in a camel wagon trek in the Southeast Queensland Outback area, in and around the tiny outback town of Cunnamulla. It was the beginning of one of my best trips to Australia. I've written about the trek several times already on this blog (put Cunnamulla, outback or camels into the search box for more) so I won't prattle on about it again - other than to say, if you ever get the chance to get into the Outback don't miss it. It's where you get to meet the 'real' Australians, the ones who have taken that vast, ruthless land and tried to tame it for their own - and their country's ends. It's an endless battle of wits, stamina and hard labour that breeds a special kind of crazy, raw, hilarious bunch of people that I loved.

When I visited Brisbane last - also 2008 - I was stunned to see how the city had grown since my previous visit. Construction was in full swing and there were cranes at work all over the city. There was a very positive vibe about the place that I found quite energising - and fresh out of the Outback, I was a little dazed and awestruck by both the vast numbers of people and dwellings. I can't imagine how the city must look now, after the recent devastating Queensland floods and Cyclone Yasi's aftermath, but hopefully, the resilience of those Queenslanders will have the place looking bright and sparkly again soon. It's not as though they're strangers to the tyranny of weather after all.

Adelaide 2007 - another terrific trip. I'd heard so much about Adelaide for so many years, I never knew what to expect. But I adored the place. It's such an easy city to get around. It's small and very very cosmopolitan. Factor in its proximity to vast wine regions, the Adelaide Hills and the stunning Fleurieu Peninsula and there's every reason to put it near the top of your Australian Must-Visit list.

More From the Corrugated Iron Files

Having written about architecture for assorted magazines for many years, I often find myself fantasising about the sort of 'ideal house' I would build for myself given an endless budget. I invariably come back to three key elements - trees, water and wood. More recently, corrugated iron and the the simple, pleasing forms of rural architecture have conspired to test my passion for the former. Now I'm thinking of building two houses - it seems the only way. Because at this point, a corrugated iron barn with a wooden interior, suspended in a tree hanging over water seems a stretch - even for me.

And so I continue to photograph corrugated iron buildings new and old. These shots were taken near the small Victorian town (as in the state of Victoria) of Woodend, an hour north of Melbourne, in Australia. I love the mismatched, patchwork nature of many of the old corrugated farm buildings. It's a durable material that lends itself to re-use, over and over again, and farms in both New Zealand and Australia offer a constant parade of that sort of inter-generational material economy. I'm just home from another road trip around New Zealand - two months on the road - and I'm already regretting the number of farm buildings I sailed past without stopping - all good fodder for my lively imagination and my dreams of building the perfect house. (I've written about corrugated iron on this blog a number of times. If you're interested in reading more, click on Corrugated Iron in the label line below).

Sunday Lunch in Woodend

During my recent stay in Woodend, Victoria, about an hour north of Melbourne, I treated myself to the culinary delights of Maloa House in the main street - a sometimes cramped mix of cafe, deli, gourmet food and general gift store. It's like they couldn't decide what they wanted to be, so they didn't. But that doesn't actually matter in the end because the food is always delicious. Service can be patchy and from time to time you feel like a bit of a nuisance when you want to buy something and all the cafe/shop staff are trying to cope with the rush of weekend business, but I can even forgive that. Woodend itself, is a popular stop for Melburnians out on their weekend drives and the day I was there, munching through my artichoke and Parmesan rissotto cake followed by coffee and muffin, was no exception. A chummy Italian family from Carlton sat next to me and we swapped food notes in that amiable kind of way that fellow travellers often do.

A Bird in the Bush

Meet Dacelo leachii - The Blue-Winged Kookaburra

Not to be confused with Dacelo novaeguineae, the Laughing Kookaburra, which is bigger.

Both of course, one of Australia's iconic 'emblems.'

I photographed this little guy on my last visit to Melbourne - in February - in the small Victorian town of Woodend, an hour north of the city.

Pining for Victoria

Rural Victoria, Australia. 2008. Ajr

Every year about this time my head and my heart start yearning for Melbourne and rural Victoria. The first glimmer of spring here in Christchurch and I begin thinking about my annual pilgrimage across the ditch to catch up with family and friends. It’s a time to indulge myself in the pleasures of my favourite Australian city; a time to explore, to wander down lanes and backstreets; a time to leap on a tram or a train and rediscover the sprawling suburbs; a time to lounge about in cafes eating too many too-rich cakes and then walking them off with my camera slung over one shoulder. It’s a time to rev up the car and head out into the countryside to discover what lies down the dusty, gum-lined side roads; a time to consider the fabric of the little communities tucked into those potentially volatile gum forests. It’s a time to be dragged out into the perishing heat on long walks with dogs and rock climbers; and most of all it’s a time for me to once again live the divine pleasure that is ‘the discovery of travel.’ I usually set up my ‘base camp’ in the little town of Woodend, about an hour’s drive north of Melbourne (or a very pleasurable one hour commute on the very efficient train system) and I spread out in all directions from there. It’s not far from Hanging Rock - that eerie little spot made famous by the Joan Lindsay novel, “Picnic at Hanging Rock” – (click on Hanging Rock below and you can read all about it), which is where I discovered Hanging Rock Winery on my 2007 visit (that's it in the top left photo). The nice thing about this part of Australia is that it comes with enough similarities to New Zealand to make it feel very comfortable and easy - familiar almost; and enough differences (like all those poisonous things), to keep you on your toes. I love the big cloud-fileld skies and all those incredibly funny linguistic quirks the Aussies have too. Anyway… that’s all I had to say. Just a little Aussie reverie.

A Small Australian Moment

Cool Graphics

From Aviary

A Gorgeous Boutique Clothing Store

Woodend, Victoria, Australia

Festive Flavours

Shelf display, Woodend, Victoria, Australia. Nov. 2007. Ajr

Christmas Puddings

Waiting for a Pot

And Hungry Australians

Resting in Peace

A Quiet Cemetery Scene

Woodend, Victoria

Australia

Nov. 2008. Ajr

Victorian Vines

Hanging Rock Vineyard, Woodend Victoria, Australia. Image Supplied.

I love this view of the sun-burnt grape vines at Hanging Rock Winery, near Woodend, where I stayed recently. As unrelenting and brutal as the sun can be in Australia, I do love the deep blue skies that come with it. And it's got to be good for wine production. Hanging Rock Vineyard is close to the Macedon Ranges, one of the coolest grape growing regions of Australia and they produce an impressive array of award-winning red and white wines. http://www.hangingrock.com.au/

More on Church Architecture

Woodend Catholic Church, Victoria, Australia. Nov. 2008 Ajr I wonder why churches are always in the best spot in any town - invariably on a hill, or a rise, on prime real estate. I guess they had the money and the community backing. St Ambrose Catholic Church in Woodend, an hour north of Melbourne is no exception. This hefty brick ediface looks over the little township with an unquestionable authority. The Catholic school is right next door.