Ballarat - begonias and historic buildings

We had planned to drive up to two viewpoints in The Grampians this Monday morning ,,, but,,, when we started our car it went crazy saying "low tire pressure" in many ways and indicating in a pictograph the left front tire lacking air. Drove to the only gas station in the village and tried to fill up air, but with no success. Pressure didn't change. Not sure whether the pump was working correctly (a guy before us had his doubts,, too), and therefore we decided not to risk to be stranded up on a viewpoint with a flat tire. Drove to the next town to pump it up, but nothing changed, again. Not sure what it was, we drove straight to Ballarat (about 1.5 hours), where a Europcar station was located and - though announced as "open" on the website, it was closed because of the holiday. Neighboring other car rental companies were open. Pumped once more, but unchanging.

Well, a bit annoyed, we drove to the Ballarat Botanical Garden. It was around noon and became hot. When we got closer: crowds, cars parked everywhere, and, we were wondering, what's going on? Ballarat Begonia Festival! The whole area with the Botanical Garden, the Tram Museum (photo below) and the Lake were packed with vendors of all kinds, food vendors, displays, stages, lectures and cooking presentation took place, organisations informed, there were kid's areas, and much more. This morning a big parade had taken place and the conservatory (photo further below) featured the highlight of the gardens: a fantastic begonia display. We bought some heirloom seeds, admired the huge trees and flower beds, the dahlia collection and the rose garden, spotted flying-foxes in the trees, walked around the lake with its black swans, ate a hotdog, listened to some music and enjoyed the green and the sun. 

 

Around 3 pm we drove into downtown, and, again a nice surprise: Plenty of historic buildings from the boom times of the city.  In July/August 1851, gold was discovered in the area and near Golden Point, where the Sovereign Hill Historical Park is located now. A product of the gold rushes, by 1871 Ballarat boasted a population of almost 50,000 and fantastic buildings came up. One of the reasons why so much of the city’s built heritage survived is that with the closure of all its mines by 1918 a deep slummer followed. 

 

Ballarat’s Sovereign Hill Historical Park (pics below), opened in 1970, a living museum presenting the story of Ballarat as a gold rush boomtown.We are staying in the adjacent hotel on vast green grounds. Enjoyed the evening sitting outside the building and watching the different parrots and listening to the chatty kookaburras.

 

BTW: So far, there is still air in the tire.

A perfect day!

We were successfull on all accounts today: the sun came out and we spotted koalas and "roos"! We started in rather cold, grey weather in Portland with an early-morning visit to the Portland Botanical Garden. Wonderful collection of dahlias - growing tall (taller than me!) and in over 180 varieties! - a nice rose garden and an arboretum, and,,, that's where we spotted our first koala!!!  The garden was established in the 1850s, under guidance of Ferdinand von Mueller, curator of the Melbourne Botanic Garden. The curator's cottage (photo) was erected in 1858 and ten years later a croquet lawn was added. 

On the left photo an Australian magpie, very intelligent, noisy birds.

After chatting with a garden volunteer, we drove on to Budj Bim Landscape - several locations with sights connected to an Aboriginal tribe, the Gunditjmara people - and the National Park. Passing the remains of ancient villages, we stopped at Tae Rak (Lake Condah) with its Cultural Center (on photo, but, it was closed!) and wetlands. There the Aboriginal people constructed a complex aquaculture system with fish traps to catch eel.

 At Lake Surprise (Budj Bim National Park) we walked to the volcanic crater (left) and ,,, spotted another Koala  on an Eucalyptus tree! 2 in just 2 hours! There are more sights connected to Budj Bim and there's a master plan to combine all sights into one attraction and to make it more approachable. Right now there are cultural tours being offered on reservation, but not much more.

Road to the park was narrow, rather one lane, a country road, but straight and smooth with no traffic, bordered by Eucalyptus forrests, probably planted for wood production? Drove through an agricultural area (sheep, cattle, grain) further on to Hamilton, a nice little town in which on a Sunday unfortunately not much was going on.

 But, our second Botanical Garden of the day was open! It dates back to the 1880s, and, again, there was a connection to Ferdinand von Mueller (1825 Rostock - 1896 Melbourne)! Another beautiful little botanical park, English-style, many old tall trees, a cottage garden, a rose garden, bridges - very beautiful and peaceful!

 

Corymbia ficifolia, commonly known as red flowering gum (Eucalyptus)

 

Dunkeld (don't ask me how it's propperly pronounced!), our next stop, offered a spread out arboretum with a drive-through road. Provided with information about The Grampians, we drove on, up to the mountains, on an amazingly straight mountain road. 

It took us not quite an hour to get up to Halls Gap, the main town. Few traffic on the road, but, when we reached the town: what a circus! Crowds, traffic, entertainment, packed car parks – crazy busy on this holiday weekend! Didn't mind the activities in town, playgrounds, a public pool, shops and restaurants, but, unfortunately, the whole surroundings, a beautiful mountain landscape, was sort of transformed into an adults' playground and adventure park. It's a pity!

Find the climber in the wall,,,

Herds of people in flip-flops walking the trails, cooling down in the Venus Bath rock pools, climbing on the boulders and making noise. We hiked one of the shorter trails, which ended - again! - in the local, small botanical garden. After having driven almost 250 km, we didn't want to drive up to the viewpoints anymore and called it a day.

Had a drink in the local, very popular a.k.a. packed brewery and enjoyed the rest of the evening at our motel, a bit out of town and pretty peaceful. Nothing fancy, rather rustic, but good value for the money. Plus, it came with good conversation with neighbors, with seating on the "porch" in front of the room, with kangaroos on the lawn behind at dusk and a gigantic starlit sky!