Way up North

After our wet and cold Dandenong Ranges trip, we woke up to a bright beautiful morning. We decided to visit Bendigo, the 2^nd largest city in Victoria. It is about 90 minutes drive up north of Melbourne Central. Impressive Victorian buildings line the wide streets of Bendigo, a reminder of the rich history built from one of the world's most exciting gold rushes.

Along the way we decided to drop into Mount Macedon. It is a small township which lies part way up the mountain of the same name. We were here to see the Memorial Cross and hanging Rock.

The Memorial Cross is 21-metre high and is set amidst trees and gardens. It is distinguished by its tiled exterior and a large bronze sword. William Cameron, built the cross as a memorial to the lost his son in World War I and as a tribute to those Australians who died in the war. The Ash Wednesday fires of 1983 damaged the cross and ruined the gardens. The latter have been re-established and the former replaced.

Just as we reached the parking lot, the weather turned for worse. It was raining hard with howling cold wind and a thick cloud of mist starting to come in. It was freezing cold with drop of tiny white flakes and we thought it was snowing. Since we were here, we braved the cold and walk in to see the cross. A quick look and see we left for Hanging Rock.

Hanging Rock is part of a small extinct volcano which rises to 105 metres above the surrounding plain. It was formed by lava emerging from a vent in the earth about six million years ago. The lava had an unusually high soda content and solidified into soda trachyte which also formed the Camel's Hump on Mount Macedon.

It is said in 1900 on Saturday 14^th February, a party of schoolgirls from Appleyard College went picnicking at Hanging Rock and during the afternoon several members of the party disappeared without a trace.

Joan Lindsay's novel Picnic at Hanging Rock is based upon the St Valentine's Day picnic. The story was later made into a lyrical film by Peter Weir. The Rock was also reputed to have been a hideout for bushrangers in the gold rush era.

When we arrived at the foot of Hanging Rock, we decided to give it a miss since it was raining and misty. So we headed for Bendigo. The first place we stopped in Bendigo was the Bendigo’s Central Deborah Gold Mine.

It is a well known tourist attraction that offers the experience of exploring a real gold mine sixty metre underground. Here you don a hard hat with a miner lamp and walk in the foot steps of miners of the old days.

After this we visited the Sacred Heart Church. Unlike many country churches which are often blue stone, the creamy sandstone of this cathedral provide a beautiful contrast with the blue skies and late afternoon light. It architecture reflects the wealth during this era.

To know more about the history of this church visit here.

The next place we visited was the Bendigo’s Chinese Museum. It is no surprise Chinese heritage is an integral part of Bendigo. If you have been following my blog, Chinese have been in Australia long, long ago in the gold rush days.

There is so much history of Chinese migration over here. This museum provides and insight of the Chinese people of Bendigo from the gold rush of the 1850’s to the present day. This museum also displays Sun Loong, the longest imperial dragon in the world (over 100 metre).

There are other places to visit like the pottery factory etc. but time was too short to see it all.