Daylesford in Britain has a reputation for being posh and exclusive. Its namesake in the Australian state of Victoria may be a bit more egalitarian, but it still has the air of being a cut above the average.
It’s got a wealth of beautiful traditional homes, quiet streets with manicured gardens, fancy restaurants, boutiques, galleries and spas. It made for a pleasant change to the big cities of Melbourne – more than 100km away to the south east – and sweltering Perth in Western Australia. It also allowed us to spend a few days with Graham’s family in a handsome cottage on Raglan Street just a few minutes walk from the bustling centre.
The two of us arrived a few days earlier, driving up through the countryside north-west of Melbourne into the foothills of the Great Dividing Range. It’s an interesting, rolling landscape, dominated by the remains of volcanoes and lava flows but now much given over to woodland and agriculture. It was in these parts that gold was discovered and then exploited in the gold rush that began in the 1850s, leading to the establishment and rapid growth of many colonial settlements, including Daylesford, and the further marginalisation and brutal treatment of aboriginal people.
On our way we stopped at Blackwood, another gold rush settlement, nestled within the towering eucalypts of the Wombat State Forest. We were there to see the Garden of St Erth, a charming and secluded spot amid the woods. Now run by the gardening charity the Diggers Club, the garden weaves around an old stone cottage that dates from the gold rush era. It was the retirement project of Tom and Penelope Garnett and is a magical spot, although the weather was a bit gloomy for much of our visit. We had lunch there then walked around the bush garden, the orchards and vegetable beds, amid dramatic shrubs and a collection of impressive trees the couple planted to complement the towering gums of the forest. Herbaceous borders in front of the cottage still blazed with colour in the early autumn of March.
Then it was onward to Daylesford, where we settled in to the cottage. The next morning we walked up to the Wombat Hill Botanical Gardens, which sit high above the town on an extinct volcano, going via the gardens of the Convent Art Gallery that lie nearby. Wombat Hill is more arboretum than garden in the traditional sense, with avenues of Dutch Elms now so rare back in the UK and many fine figs, pines and gums. We stopped for lunch in the delightful cafe, climbed the lookout tower and (sort of) admired the gaudiness of the begonia conservatory. In the afternoon we went to the Mill, a giant antiques and collectables store, where Graham spent hours surveying every item at every stall and I lost the will to live and purchased a brooch of silver and opal.
The family turned up later in the day. The weekend was then really all about keeping the children occupied so we went to the Maze House, a wonderful attraction for kids several miles outside town with a collection of traditional outdoor games and the titular maze itself. We returned to the Mill and then explored some of the shops on the high street, including another antiques place and a grand second-hand bookstore. Next day we took a ride on the Daylesford Spa Railway, from the old Daylesford train station. On Sunday mornings there’s a great market on the site and after a quick walk round we jumped on board a 1930s one-carriage, bone-shaking diesel for the hour-long round trip through woods and fields to the pretty restored station at Bullarto.
We ate well in town too. The food at the historic Daylesford Hotel was very good indeed so we went there twice, before and after the family visit, and had take-away pizzas from there with them. The Royal Daylesford was a bit blander but young Oscar found the pool table a big draw…
After checking out of our cottage, the two of us drove north to the stately town of Castlemaine. We didn’t have long there so we only had time for a visit to another store – yet again a vast collection of antiques and collectables housed in an old woollen mill. After buying an old movie poster and lunching in the mill’s German cafe, it was time to head south for the last leg of our holiday in Melbourne.