IMAGES: ALAMY
Australia
silvery trunks reaching for the skies, with a thin canopy of eucalyptus leaves up high. The drive through Victoria’s High Country provides plenty of views like this, interspersed with farmland, vineyards and foodie pockets. The target is Beechworth, a splendidly preserved old town that combines legendary bakeries, goldrush history and swoony buildings with timewarp verandas. It’s also the epicentre of Australia’s extraordinarily lucrative Ned Kelly industry. Down under, Kelly’s a folk hero: a Robin Hood figure to some; a brutal murderer to others. Walking tours from the Town Hall take in some
of the sites from the Kelly legend, including the courthouse where he was first tried for horse- stealing and the cold, temporary jail cells where sympathisers and associates were locked up. The circuit condenses the story into a digestible 90 minutes, which swings from anti-British resentment in Ireland to the short-lived dream of an independent republic in north-eastern Victoria. On the way, there are bare-knuckle boxing bouts through the streets of Beechworth, corrupt cops, a forest shoot out that leſt three policemen dead and the country’s biggest ever bounty on Kelly’s head, as well as the charred corpses of the Kelly gang members inside the burned-down hotel where they staged their last stand. It’s a rip-roaring tale with a zillion shades of grey, and no outright good guys.
TOBACCO TO WINE Stringybark Creek, the site of that forest shoot-out, is now a campground in the middle of the marvellously named Wombat Ranges, and the drive down there heads through the lush King Valley. Here, cockatoos fluter all over the road, and Italian-sounding names crop up on signs. Aſter the Second World War, it was thought that this area might be prime territory for cultivating tobacco. Many Italians came to the region to try their hand at growing the plant, and when it became clear that other crops would fare much beter, they switched, leading to the rise of both agriculture and viticulture. And it’s the later that’s now the most prominent, with the King Valley rapidly gaining a reputation as Australia’s prosecco capital. At the Pizzini winery, cellar door master
Robert Wellard says that the trials and tribulations of the tobacco-growing period had a long-term impact. “Our founder, Alfredo Pizzini, always says that once you know how to grow tobacco, you can grow anything.” The winery is at the forefront of Australia’s
push away from its stock red wine varietals, shiraz and cabernet sauvignon. Wellard reckons Pizzini was among the first in the country to make a sangiovese, and aside from the prosecco, that’s what it’s now best known for. A few glasses of wine amid the vineyards, where
a wallaby could hop by at any moment, was the original inspiration for this road trip. But the back stories encountered along the way helped me really get to know this slice of Australia.
50 ABTA Magazine | April 2017
Old paddle steamer on Murray river Above: King Valley vineyard, near Milawa
THE TRUE SOUTH package by Austravel takes in the highlights of rural Victoria and includes car hire and three- to four-star accommodation, from £472 per person. This can be extended to take in extra time in the High Country, Riverina or Bendigo as required. International flights to Melbourne with the likes of Singapore Airlines cost from around £700 per person.
austravel.com
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