Grampians NP

Found some Kropfs down under! Mom and Dad came to visit for a couple of weeks and get a taste of Australia.

Grampians National Park is the next location on the journey around Australia.  This is a national park in the western part of Victoria.  It is about four hours west of Melbourne.  Known for its waterfall (McKenzie Falls), hikes, and scenery, the park was ours for a couple of days.  McKenzie Falls was impressive and the water was quite chilly!  Next were a couple of walks to lookouts and hiking to Pinnacle Point.  The hike to Pinnacle was probably one of the more interesting ones I have done.  Being used to the eastern US hiking trails, this was nothing like what I hike at home.  A more open, rocky hike is what we encountered, with poor weather and unique terrain all afternoon.  The view at the top was well worth it, and we found some sun on the way down.  On our last day we visited the Aboriginal Cultural Center and a rock art site with authentic Aboriginal drawings!  After the rock art it was back to Melbourne for a couple days before Queensland on the weekend.

McKenzie Falls

Some Hall's Gap locals 

Aboriginal rock art

Bendigo!

Just a short train ride from Melbourne is Bendigo, an old mining town in the Goldfields region of Victoria.  The area today is known for its wine and countryside, but this quiet town used to be the center of the gold-mining world.  The underbelly of this town was once laden with gold, equipment, and miners, but all that is left today is just a large system of tunnels and shafts.  The town has classic architecture brought over with the Europeans upon settlement.

The Central Deborah Gold Mine was one of the largest mines in Bendigo.  It has since stopped mining operations but still has much of its original touch.  We went down about 60 meters to see life as it would have been for a miner in Bendigo.  Miners lived a tough life and worked in some of the most dangerous conditions at that time.  Drill and equipment demonstrations were included!  Wish I could have tried it out!  After visiting the mine I have learned it is good to be studying, or I may have ended up mining for gold!