Roadside Attractions from Melbourne to Mildura

A Roadside Attractions column for Australian Traveller Magazine on the route between Melbourne and Mildura via the Calder Highway.

Roadside Attractions – Melbourne to Mildura via the Calder Highway

Let AT liven up your next roadtrip. Each issue we take a well-worn path and provide you with plenty of perfect distractions along the way. By Kim Richards

“Not another road trip," you’re thinking. The kids will get fidgety and ask the dreaded “Are we there yet?" 1000 times or more. But with AT’s quick stops and long stretches your trip is happily broken up as we steer you happily along the A 79. Here’s how to best enjoy the 650km Melbourne-Mildure stretch . . .

Stop 1 //
Bendigo, 150km northwest of Melbourne
Let your creative juices run wild at Bendigo’s Art Gallery (42 View St), one of the most beautiful provincial galleries in the country. Be inspired. Art’s always a great conversation starter, and massively educational for the more creative family. Before hitting the road, grab a cuppa from any coffee bar – the café culture is pretty prominent here.

Stop 2 //
Charlton, 245km from Melbourne
Here’s one for the fitness fanatic family: walk the 4km return trek along the Avoca River and set up your (prepacked) picnic on your return (easily done for the organised mum). There are tree-lined avenues and riverbanks running through town so finding a spot for your outdoor spread shouldn’t be hard.

Stop 3 //
Mount Wycheproof, 270km southeast of Mildura
Turn onto the C 267 for a quick peek at the smallest registered mountain worldwide. It’s a mere 43m high but boasts great little views. From town, turn right into High St, left into Mount St and follow your nose towards Mount Wycheproof. And if you didn’t stop at Charlton, here’s your chance to take a short walk uphill. (It shouldn’t take long.)

Stop 4 //
Lake Tyrrell Wildlife Reserve, 180km from Mildura
Five to ten minutes from Sea Lake, turn right off the Calder Hwy towards Lake Tyrrell, where you’ll find amazing views of Victoria’s largest salt lake (impressive even when dry, which is most of the year). Islands dotted around the lake are breeding grounds for thousands of seagulls. Keep an eye out – there’s a lot of wildlife around.

Stop 5 //
Ouyen, 102km south of Mildura
Stop for a delicious meal at the Victoria Hotel (22 Rowe St). We reckon it’s one of the nicest country pubs in Victoria. And although you’ll be rushed for time (as all travellers are), you’ve got to grab a take away Vanilla Slice for desert; Ouyen is home to the annual Vanilla Slice Day, so they’ve got a reputation to uphold.

A town charmingly paused in time has become a hot mountain biking destination.

There’s a forest reserve full of eucalyptus and pines surrounding town – when you combine all the greenery with a main street of grand old buildings still standing from the Victorian Gold Rush, Creswick looks more period movie set than a 21st-century town.

old gold bank Victoria — Grand buildings from the Victorian gold rush. (Image: Visit Victoria)

This entire region of Victoria – the Central Goldfields – is as pretty-as-a-picture, but there’s something extra-special about Creswick. I used to live 30 minutes north; I’d drive in some evenings to cruise its main street at dusk, and pretend I was travelling back in time.

It was sleepy back then, but that’s changed. Where I used to walk through its forest, now I’m hurtling down the state’s best new mountain bike trails. There’s a 60-kilometre network of mountain bike trails – dubbed Djuwang Baring – which make Creswick the state’s hottest new mountain biking destination.

Meet Victoria’s new mountain biking capital

Creswick bike trail — This historic town has become a mountain biking hotspot.

Victoria has a habit of turning quiet country towns into mountain biking hotspots. I was there in the mid-2000s when the tiny Otways village of Forrest embarked on an ambitious plan to save itself (after the death of its timber cutting industry) courtesy of some of the world’s best mountain bike trails. A screaming success it proved to be, and soon mountain bike trails began popping up all over Victoria.

I’m no expert, so I like that a lot of Creswick’s trails are as scenic as they are challenging. I prefer intermediate trails, such as Down Martuk, with its flowing berms and a view round every corner. Everyone from outright beginners to experts can be happy here. There’s trails that take me down technical rock sections with plenty of bumps. But there’s enough on offer to appeal to day-trippers, as much as hard-core mountain-bikers.

I love that the trails empty onto that grand old main street. There’s bars still standing from the Gold Rush of the 1850s I can refuel at. Like the award-winning Farmers Arms, not to be confused with the pub sharing its name in Daylesford. It’s stood since 1857. And The American Creswick built two years later, or Odessa Wine Bar, part of Leaver’s Hotel in an 1856-built former gold exchange bank.

The Woodlands is set on a large bushland property. (Image: Vanessa Smith Photography)

Creswick is also full of great cafes and restaurants, many of them set in the same old buildings that have stood for 170 years. So whether you’re here for the rush of the trails or the calm of town life, Creswick provides.

A traveller’s checklist

Staying there

Inside the Woodlands, a chic 1970s log cabin. (Image: Vanessa Smith Photography)

RACV Goldfields Resort is a contemporary stay with a restaurant, swimming pool and golf course. The Woodlands in nearby Lal Lal comprises a chic log cabin set on a 16-hectare property abundant in native wildlife.

Eating there

Le Peche Gourmand makes for the perfect pitstop for carb and sugar-loading.

The menu at Odessa at Leaver’s Hotel includes some Thai-inspired fare. Fuel up for your ride on baguettes and pastries from French patisserie Le Peche Gourmand . The Farmers Arms has been a much-loved local institution since 1857.

Playing there

Creswick State Forest has a variety of hiking trails, including a section of the 210-kilometre-long Goldfields Track. Miss Northcotts Garden is a quaint garden store with tea room.

Roadside attractions from Melbourne to Mildura

A Roadside Attractions column for Australian Traveller Magazine on the route between Melbourne and Mildura via the Calder Highway.

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