Rochester Roaming

Reflecting back on the summer holidays we've had so far it reminds me of the song 'I've Been Everywhere'... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=20oqyMVbss0 is a link to the song if you don't know it! We've been to Yarragon, Bairnsdale, Paynesville, Raymond Island, Maryborough, Newstead, Talbot, Avoca, Cotswold, Carisbrook, Bridgewater, Rochester, Kyabram, Tongala, Picola, Nathalia, Echuca, Colbinabbin, Rushworth and now Euroa! 

On the way from Maryborough to Rochester we stopped at Bridgewater-on-Loddon. Another cute little town. The only place open was the bakery, with the queue stretching down the street, so we gave that a miss, bought some fruit at a roadside stall, wandered the town and continued on our way! 

The Rochester Riverside Caravan Park was a great spot, right on the Campaspe River. Prone to flooding, the caravan park regular goes under. It now has nice new amenities built higher off the ground. The 2011 floods covered much of the town. 

Once set up, we walked around town. Rochester has a few claims to fame. One is the painted silos, one with a kingfisher, the other with a possum. They certainly look pretty spectacular. 

A couple of days after first seeing the silos we noticed there was a brand new, maybe unfinished one on the back of this platypus. There was no signage or anything to make us aware it was there. We found it almost by accident!

We also discovered that they get lit up at night - I think they look even better then!

Adding to the artistic element of the town, is the 'Iddles Lane' mural. Ron Iddles is a now retired police officer who was in charge of the homicide squad for many years. In recent times he has hosted his own TV show where he explains some of the cases he was involved in. He was born in Rochester. 

Continuing the art and local identity, Sir Hubbert Opperman, the famous Australian cyclist was also born in the area. There is a statue of him alongside the highway in town. We visited the sports museum in the old railway station where we learnt a lot more about him. He died aged 91 but the circumstances of his passing is quite unique. He always loved his cycling, and apparently he was riding his exercise bike and died while 'riding' it! I guess if you love cycling, that's a great way to go! 

In the sports museum we learnt all about John Forbes, a local who went on to work with Herb Elliott for Puma (sports company) and signed up all sorts of sports people in Australia and overseas with sponsorship deals. He took a genuine interest in the athletes and his story is quite interesting. Athletes started sending him merchandise, signed clothing and posters as tokens of thanks. He ended up donating it all so it could become a museum here in Rochester. 

This is Opperman's exercise bike, the one he died on, aged 91!

A Russian Olympic tracksuit - a rare find apparently as the communist regime was strict about issuing and tracking what they gave the athletes. However one athlete traded his for some Puma gear, so it is now on display!

Gilchrist's keeping gloves.

Dennis Lillee's infamous aluminium bat

Merv Hughes' gear

Rochester has an annual 'Muralfest' which attracts artists to the area. We saw many of them in a park along the highway out of town. I also like the imposing architecture of the row of old pubs and banks in town. 

There was a miniature mural on the side of one of the hotels!

Gemma had joined us for this leg of the journey and she and Ethan enjoyed swimming and kayaking in the Campaspe while we were in Rochester. Ethan and I shared the kayak on one trip and saw a snake swim across the river in front of us!

The caravan park owner generously lent Ethan some fishing gear to have a go at catching something. We had ham steaks for dinner...

Jeanette & Zac joined us for some of our time in Rochester and we visited Echuca. A lovely town, but these days always busy with tourists! How dare they! Some of the unique features of the old port area are gone - such as the wood maker, with it's large belt driven pieces of machinery that you'd expect to see in action. A shame really. Just as well the paddle steamers are still there, and we say a few of them as we had lunch on the river bank. 

Silo art is a popular thing in the 21st century and there is a few in the area, so we went out to visit some towns that feature these oversized murals. A few other towns along the way have there own artistic elements, if not silo pieces. 

Colbinabbin has probably the most impressive silo art I've seen. 

Tongala lacks silos but it has bright orange cows and a pig. Not to mention a whole heap of murals and christmas themed haystacks. 

Picola is another town with a painted silo, birds are the feature, with a different bird taking pride of place on each side. 

Kyabram, not wanting to miss out has painted some animals on the side of its short but very wide water tank. It's at the water treatment plant so you cannot get to see them very well, so these pictures feature barbed wire fences... 

After 4 nights at Rochester it was time to move on. It was only 107 km to our next destination, Euroa. We stopped in Rushworth and had milkshakes and a wander around this cute historic town before heading on and setting up camp, right on the water. More about that next time...

Our spot at Euroa: