2 April 2000

Left Ballarat a little after 8:00 o'clock this morning after driving round and having a look at the city. There are certainly some fine old buildings and beautiful architecture but I found it hard to really appreciate it. It just seems we have seen so much of it lately that it is becoming boring. Or maybe we've just been away too long, but I don't think so. I think its just that suburbia and large urban country towns are the same everywhere, and what we've been seeing recently is no different from what we see in Sydney. Or Penrith. Or NSW. Even the countryside we saw driving from place to place was the same as we see at home. Glenrowan was a little different, but I'll get to that later.

From Ballarat we drove north through Castlemaine (where we stopped for breakfast) and on to Bendigo. I didn't mind Bendigo too much. It is smaller and quieter than Ballarat and I thought it more interestingly laid out, although whether by design or accident I don't know. To me it also seemed "greener", with more parks and gardens than Ballarat. And it had the added attraction (quaintness, if you like) of its trams.

We drove north east from Bendigo to Shepparton, and then slightly south of east down to Benalla - Kelly Country (Ned, that is) although you wouldn't know it. I'll get to that later, too.

After some lunch at Benalla we drove north east to Glenrowan, scene of the famous (infamous?) Kelly Gang's "Last Stand". When you first drive into Glenrowan you are overwhelmed by the commerciality of the place (despite its smallness), with Kate Kelly's Tea House, Kelly's Cookhouse, Ned Kelly's Bistro, the Glenrowan Hotel, Glenrowan Kelly Country Motel, several-times-life-size statue of Ned Kelly ("the Big Ned" or some such, I suppose), etc. Only after you've been there a while do you realize all the events of historical significance took place on the other side of the railway lines. But none of the tourist brochures we saw tell you this, although they all tell you where all the above commercial enterprises are. I personally found it disappointing that the sites of the events which put Glenrowan on the map (and which most tourists, I am sure, go there to see) aren't much more prominently advertised. I did think, though, that the display that is there (when you eventually find it) is very good. It consists of larger than life-size wooden statues of the Police, the Kellys and some of the passengers from the train all standing in the relative positions they might have occupied as the events of that day unfolded. The statues are basically wooden pillars with uniforms, clothes, faces, helmets, firearms, etc all painted on, and are quite effective in communicating what is happening. We'll come back here in the morning, when the light is coming from the other direction.

While at Glenrowan we went out to Bailey's winery. Davis Gelatine, where I worked from about 1969 to 1978, used to own Bailey's. They were very well known for their full-bodied red wines, and had an international reputation for their dessert wines. I was very interested to have a look round their operation. They are now owned by Mildara-Blass.

What I started to say earlier was that I don't know why this whole area doesn't make more of the Kelly connection. Most of the towns around here had one, whether it be Glenrowan (where the gang was finally cornered and brought down), or Beveridge (where Ned was born), Avenel, Greta and the Eleven Mile Creek (where the Kelly family lived), Benalla and Kyneton (where the young Ned was charged for helping the bushranger Harry Power), Mansfield, Tolmie, Beechworth, Euroa, Jerilderie - all had links with the gang for various reasons. I acknowledge the gang were outlaws and shouldn't be regarded in any way as heroes, but the events and connections are nevertheless part of local history and I think much more use could be made of them, in a positive manner of course. Admittedly we've been only to three of these places so far but in Benalla and Wangaratta a casual visitor wouldn't know the gang or its exploits had ever happened, and in Glenrowan there is only commercial exploitation without the historical perspective.

From Glenrowan we moved north west to Wangaratta, where we are spending the night. I don't mind Wangaratta, from what we've seen of it so far - not too big and bustling, and again the beautiful old buildings.

Tomorrow will revisit Glenrowan, then Greta and Beechworth, then down to Mansfield and south towards Phillip Island.