I don’t know why it is that travellers are routinely described as ‘weary’. If I’m describing myself, I just say I’m a traveller – not a weary one. But when travel publications refer to havens for the weary traveller; and weary traveller’s resting places; and recharging the weary travellers batteries and the like, you start to believe the hype.

So after a long day on the road when we arrived in Victorian mallee town Hopetoun looking for fuel and were overcome by a sudden and inexplicable travel weariness, instead of driving on to our planned destination these two (newly) weary travellers decided to stop and look for somewhere to stay.

Luckily for us, Hopetoun delivered. And delivered so well, we stuck around for a couple more days to check it out.

That was Visit #1.

Which we enjoyed so much, in 2014 we sandwiched a week at nearby Wyperfeld National Park between two more Hopetoun stays.

Why?

Because travellers (whether weary or not) who use Hopetoun as a base to explore Western Victoria’s mallee region will find AT LEAST five good reasons why Hopetoun Victoria makes it onto our TOP Aussie Town list!

1 Mallee Bush Retreat

Our camper trailer is like having our very own portable micro-nation. It’s the one constant in our travels – we know what’s in it, where everything is, how it works. So it’s a rare day on the road that I’d rather sleep somewhere else.

But who wouldn’t want to sleep in a Silo?

The Silo Cabins are just two of the quirky and inexpensive accommodation options built from local materials like wood, stone and corrugated iron at The Mallee Bush Retreat on the shores of Lake Lascelles.

Even the public loo gets the rustic treatment!!

The Retreat’s brochure description – ‘an ideal stop for not only the weary traveller but people seeking adventure and excitement’ – was a sign, so I suppressed my disappointment at foregoing the pleasures of snoozing in a silo, and we set up on one of the several grassed, powered sites overlooking the lake.

Which with its easy access to an excellent amenities block, camp kitchen, lakeside fire bucket AND low price tag* quickly became one of our all-time favourite powered campsites ANYWHERE!

In fact, cheap powered sites and FREE unpowered sites make Hopetoun an attractive alternative to camping at Wyperfeld National Park (see #5 below) 40 km away on a fully sealed road (to the southern entrance) – since 1 July 2014 it costs between $34-$37.80** for an unpowered campsite.

2 Lake Lascelles

I don’t know from whom I inherited the compulsion to walk around the perimeter of any given (smallish) lake I find . But despite our travel weariness, we soon gave in to the urge to circumnavigate Lake Lascelles’ shores – an easy 30 minute walk.

More if you’re there at sunset or sunrise with a camera handy.

Named for EH Lascelles, one-time owner of local Corrong Station, the lake is always full thanks to the Grampians-Wimmera Mallee Pipeline. And that meant the sensational sunset, sunrise AND moonrise reflections had me regularly jostling for the best vantage point. Yes, my friends, that’s why I have elbows!

Pilchard’s elbows get used if anyone’s between him and a clear view of the birds that find the lake an attractive home, or in the case of avian weary travellers – staging post!

And at night, the welcoming glow of campfires all around the lake tells us we’re (sadly) not the only weary travellers to have discovered this killer campground!

3 The Bow Bakery

Where does one go when the energy-depleting effects of exercise, exploration and elbow-nudging takes their toll on ones energy reserves?

In Hopetoun that’s an EASY question.

The Bow Bakery, of course!!

An off-shoot of the bakery in nearby town Rainbow (RainBOW bakery, geddit?) it’s another reason why weary travellers might want to break their journey in Hopetoun.

And then visit Rainbow for a go at the original Bow!

4 Patchewollock

It’s a little off the beaten track if you’re not visiting the northern section of Wyperfeld National Park (see below), unless you’ve heard of Patchewollock’s BIG attraction – and my all time favourite Australian BIG THING – the BIG Malleefowl!

Since my only visit to this awesome creation a few years ago, my complimentary*** copy of The Little Book of Big Aussie Icons tells me there are now TWO Big Malleefowl – with rumours they’re going to breed, which means eggs and chicks in the future.

And surely that’s something to excite even the most jaded of weary travellers. If not, then maybe this isn’t the blog for you

5 Wyperfeld National Park

The day of Hopetoun Visit #2 was actually meant to end at Wyperfeld National Park.

Ever since a day trip on Visit #1, we’d planned to return to this mallee wonderland, one of several Victorian Mallee National Parks collectively covering over 1,000,000 hectares.

But another attack of lethargy-inducing travel weariness forced (!) us to settle for somewhere with facilities to recover from our exhausting ~6 hour drive (including bakery stops – Lameroo is GOOD!).

One night turned into two – but in our defence, Hopetoun’s excellent main street was the perfect place to stock up with supplies for a few nights in the mallee wilderness.

And so the long weekend we’d planned for Wyperfeld turned into a week!

Spending 7 days in Wyperfeld was easy.

We hiked the Desert Walk through a strangely beautiful fire-ravaged dune system, recovering from the summer bushfires 6 months before. We walked through spinifex and sand dunes to Mt Mattingley lookout on the Discovery Loop, explored the Park’s history at the Visitor Centre, and its habitats on the Tyakil Walk. We climbed Flagstaff Hill at sunset and drove the Eastern Lookout loop, searching for Mallee Fowl on the Lowan track.

And sometimes we just walked along the roads.

While the park and surrounding area is a 4WD mecca, that meant our walk/rest/eat/sit-around-the-campfire-when-your-travels-make-you-weary lifestyle in the zero degree night air (it WAS mid-winter!) passed relatively undisturbed.

But if you want to know what avid 4WD enthusiasts talk about around the campfire after a hard day on the tracks, then you’ll have to come to Wyperfeld on a long weekend too!!

If sand dunes, space, spinifex, solitude and scenic loos – the Wonga Campground loo is in MY BOOK – aren’t your thing, then Wyperfeld probably won’t thrill you as much as it did me.

In which case, head for Hopetoun and hope like hell the Bon Bon Cafe and Takeaway is still serving their killer pizza!

Back in Hopetoun with 8 days of washing piled up, a pantry ready for re-stocking and two weary travellers in dire need of a shower we reclaimed our site at the Mallee Bush Retreat and sat back waiting for the sunset. Then the moonrise.

Two more nights, and we reluctantly left this little gem in the middle of the mallee despite so many reasons to stay. But many reasons to stay means we know we’ll be back!

Like this post? Why not register to get RedzAustralia updates via email HERE! THEN … share it (buttons below)!

Want MORE?

• Hopetoun, Victoria
• The Mallee Bush Retreat, Hopetoun Victoria
• Wyperfeld National Park, Victoria
• The BIG Malleefowl, Patchewollock and MORE Aussie BIG Things
• My FIRST trip to Hopetoun, Victoria
• MORE Victoria Mallee Photos on Flickr

* $20 per night for a powered site; FREE Bush Camping around the lake as at July 2014

** As at 26 Jan 2015

*** Complimentary because MY photo of Ballina’s BIG Prawn is in it!

Next Post: Walk Wild Wilkawillina!

Previous Post:
A Day in the Border Ranges National Park

The post Why Hopetoun Victoria is a TOP Aussie Town! appeared first on Australia by Red Nomad OZ.

I’m not sure why it’s never occurred to us to stop at Lake Cullulleraine, 58 km west of northern Mildura and deep in the heart of the Victorian Mallee.

Until now.

Only 3½ hours from Adelaide, Cullulleraine (as it is shown on more modern maps) is a perfect example of why it’s SO worth exploring places not so far from home, something us long-distance road-trip experts tend not to do.

So when we left home much later than anticipated, and spent an inordinately long lunchtime at the FAAAAABULOUS Renmark Patisserie Café/Bakery AND then crossed the border into Victoria thereby gaining half an hour, we realised we’d be getting to Mildura on dusk.

Something Pilchard swore we’d never do.

So we pulled in to the Bushman’s Rest Caravan Park for a drive by.

That’s a euphemism for ‘check and see if it looks like it’s full of psychos and axe murderers before we commit to staying’, in case you were wondering … and if it doesn’t pass the ‘whaddayareckon’ test, we – yes, you guessed it – drive on by!

Bushman’s Rest passed with flying colours, despite the sign in the amenities block … give me an alien over an axe murderer any day!  Although weirdly, there were no children in sight …

The manager then confirmed the ‘pass’ when, unprompted, he gave us a 10% discount!

Even without knowing he was speaking with Red Nomad OZ – although I guess this post will give the game away …

The huge lawned lakefront site with power and a view to die for as the sun started sinking behind the clouds, far enough off the Sturt Highway to muffle the traffic noise and with no one else much around may mean we never stay in Mildura again!!

It also meant we stayed an extra day. Even though we woke to heavy fog and winter temperatures.

A few kilometres north (although not enough to make any difference to the weather) is the Lock 9 weir, constructed in the mid 1920’s and one of 13 locks along the Murray River (or River Murray, depending on which school you went to, and how long ago).

Absolute virgin territory (ie neither of us had been there before), it’s a wild stretch where few houseboats venture.

Even if the sign at the lock warns of a different danger …

Although Lake Cullulleraine is 9 metres above the river level, there’s still a lot of floodplain in between the lake and the river that would have been inundated during the massive 1956 floods, the benchmark against which all floods in these parts are measured.  With 100 times the volume of water than that flowing through the river now!

The 184 hectare Lake, once an ephemeral wetland, has been topped up since the 1920’s to provide a permanent water supply for a post-war farming scheme in the Millewa district.

The 10.4 km walking trail circumnavigating the lake (8.6 km if you take the shortcut across a peninsula!) passes through a number of habitats, over the Supply Channel Bridge AND – most unexpected of all – past a now disused Scenic Public Toilet on a rise behind the old boat ramp.

From which that killer sunset is best viewed …

As we relaxed on the lake front after our 8.6 km stroll (yes, we took the shortcut!), the manager gave his miniature float plane a workout from the jetty directly in front – presumably in preparation for the upcoming R/C Float Plane event to be held at Bushman’s Rest in early July! Little did he know he – and his plane – would soon be appearing on my blog …

Albeit separately – my sports photography skills being insufficient to get a clear shot of the plane in the air!

As dusk fell, and countless Purple Swamphen gathered in anticipation of beating the possums to our leftovers, we knew we’d lucked out.

It had never before occurred to us to stop at Lake Cullulleraine.

But we won’t be making that mistake again – we’ve still got the attractions on the southern side of the highway to explore!

And there’s not an axe murderer in sight …

PS  Of course such awesome views deserve a second chance!  BUT … was our SECOND visit as good as the FIRST??  Check out what happened exactly 5 weeks later when we visited Lake Cullulleraine again HERE!

Want MORE?

• Our SECOND visit to Lake Cullulleraine!
• Bushman’s Rest Caravan Park
• Lake Cullulleraine, Victoria
• Murray River

The post Lake Cullulleraine: So COOL it’s HOT! appeared first on Australia by Red Nomad OZ.

The insatiable curiosity that leads me off the main road to explore an interesting sounding place or rumoured oddity isn’t always rewarded.

But in the tiny town of Patchewollock, deep in the Victorian Mallee and just off the Hopetoun/Walpeup road, I hit paydirt.

Big time!

Unmarked on any tourist literature (that I’d seen) Patchewollock hosts one of the most bizarre Australian Big Thing I’ve ever seen.

So far, anyway.

The Big Malleefowl, constructed almost entirely from painted corrugated iron, is perched near the restored railway station and goods shed, classified by the National Trust. Thanks to the decades of relentless country Australia de-railing by successive governments, the trains no longer run.

And neither does the Big Malleefowl. A little unsteady on its feet, the orange netting around its claws stops people adults children from attempting to climb it.

The heartland of the vulnerable Malleefowl (Leipoa ocellata) is unsurprisingly the Mallee country and nearby Wyperfeld National Park is a known habitat. This notoriously shy bird incubates its eggs on the ground in a large mound of earth and leaves, so is therefore under threat from both bushfires and foxes, despite it’s protective colouration that acts as camouflage.

Or perhaps the Big Malleefowl was designed to echo its megafauna ancestor, Progura naracoortensis …

Whether its unknown maker/s intended it to be male or female is uncertain. And with no distinguishing characteristics between them, I’ll wait for an expert chicken sexer to make a determination!

But whatever its gender, I suspect Outback Patchewollock has scored itself an exclusive. While Malleefowl are found in other areas of Australia, I’d be amazed to find that anyone else had the foresight and vision to actually make a Big One!

And because it’s an Australian endemic, I’m betting you won’t see a Big Malleefowl anywhere else in the world!

Now THAT’S worth visiting Patchewollock for!!

Want more information?

• Patchewollock, Victoria
• Malleefowl (Leipoa ocellata)
• Victorian Mallee
• Wyperfeld National Park

The post Only in OZ #22 – The Big Malleefowl, Patchewollock, Victoria appeared first on Australia by Red Nomad OZ.

It’s getting increasingly difficult to do something that no one else – or at least very few – have done. Even the ‘I’ve-climbed-Mt-Everest’ club is not the insider clique it once was …

But conquering Mt Wycheproof, deep in the heart of Victorian Mallee country should cement my mountain climbing credentials once and for all.

Because I’ve now done what WAAAY fewer Mt Everest mountaineers have done!

I’ve climbed the world’s smallest mountain!

According to locals AND Wikipedia, Mount Wycheproof is the smallest registered mountain in the world!! Whether it qualifies as world’s smallest mountain depends, of course, on how a mountain is defined. But as there’s no universally accepted definition that deems it ineligible, I’m calling it!!

Just as well size doesn’t matter …

At only 148 metres (486 ft) above sea level, the peak is actually only 43 metres (~140 ft) above the flat and endless plain on which it sits. Over which it has great views – in an Aussie-Outback kind of way …

The summit overlooks a stretch of the Calder Highway known as ‘Broadway’. Rumour suggests# it was so named by an American-born chemist because it reminded him of New York’s Broadway!

The resemblance is obvious, isn’t it?!?!

But the cachet of being one of the few to climb the world’s smallest mountain isn’t the only thrill to be had from conquering this minuscule metamorphic boss!

Add another couple of notches to your ‘world exclusives’ belt with the phosphate-based mineral Wycheproofite and Aussie wildflower Correa glabra (Wycheproof form), both exclusive to the area.

Tragically, the annual ‘King of the Mountain’ race up the 1:6 gradient from the plain to the summit holding a 63 kg (140 lb) bag of wheat ended in 1988, so I won’t need to make excuses be able to challenge for the title.

But … nothing was going to stop me from ascending this magnificent mountain peak!

To help you conquer the world’s smallest mountain while it’s still a world exclusive, I’ve included the track notes for our journey to the Mt Wycheproof summit:

1. Drive up mountain to carpark
2. Stop to admire and photograph scenic public toilet
3. Follow the sealed track for ~50 metres to the summit

You’re welcome …

And at over 8.5 km (~ 5 miles) lower than Mt Everest, Mt Wycheproof is MY kind of mountain!

# According to the Great Australia Gazetteer, a handy travel guide/cookbook/map reference to Australia’s weirdest wonders, anyway!!

PS  NEWSFLASH!  The Scenic Public Loo near Mt Wycheproof’s awesome summit appears in MY BOOK Aussie Loos with Views!

Want MORE?

• Mt Wycheproof – world’s smallest mountain
• Wycheproof
• The Mallee
• World’s smallest mountain RANGE

The post World Mountaineering Exclusive! Mt Wycheproof, Victoria appeared first on Australia by Red Nomad OZ.