Historic Village Herberton

This amazing historic village owes it's existence firstly to Herberton's pioneers  and then also to the people who have collected old buildings, hundreds of artefacts from the past, many many old cars tractors, bottles, records and so much more.

Back to school in the 1800's, early 1900's

I have been to historic villages before, such as Sovereign Hill in Ballarat but this one has literally thousands upon thousands of pieces of history collected from the area. I was also totally amazed in the organization of everything and how clean everything was.

Day's Garage held so many beautiful vehicles

A funeral wagon

This toy store had so many amazing toys

 All the buildings, except Tin Pannikin Pub dates from Herberton's foundation years in the 1880's and almost all the buildings are as they were originally constructed.

Everything was so clean

The products in the pharmacy were mind blowing

Robe, South Australia

Robe is a charming seaside township with a population of around 1500. But due to it's popularity between South Australians and Victorians alike this number increases immensely during the holiday season. Located on Guichen Bay, Robe was first discovered by the french explorer Nicolas Baudin way back in 1802. With over 84 historic buildings and sites it's not hard to get a feel of what Robe was like in days gone by.

Just one of the 84 historic buildings/sights

The restored walls of the Old Goal which held prisoners from 1860 - 1881

 The Obelisk was erected in 1852 and was used to assist ships navigate the entrance to Guichen Bay. It was also used to store rocket lifesaving equipment. The firing of rockets, carrying baskets to distressed ships to bring passengers ashore, saved many lives. It later assisted passing ships with navigation because its height of 12m (40 ft) makes it visible 20km (12mles) out to sea

The Obelisk - The erosion of the land surrounding the
obelisk will mean it will eventually
fall away.

Even the Lakeside Tourist Park where we are staying has an interesting history. Both the Lakeside House and Stables are State Heritage Listed. The stables which is the tourist park office and owners residence have the original timbers which were once used as ballast in a ship which bought over other building materials from England. By far the most interesting aspect of the building is the "Pug and Post" floor. This unique floor is made from local hardwood timbers which apparently go down one metre into the ground. The floor is purposely built to wear unevenly, which encouraged the horses to move around preventing poor circulation. (Doesn't work on humans!)

Historic Lakeside House

The amazing "Pug and Post" floor

Victor Harbour

We are currently staying in Victor Harbour for a few days. We are camped in the driveway of Shane's Auntie Jean and her hubby John. It's a bit weird being set up in a driveway! Victor Harbour is a said to be one of South Australia's premium seaside cities. The cities economy is based on agriculture and fisheries, but tourism is possibly the main economy. With an out of holiday season population of around 14,500 it is a very pretty city with lots of beautiful bays.

Very pretty Victor Harbour

Today we went for a drive to the historic town of Strathalbyn for lunch with Jean and John. With a population of only around 4,000 Strathalbyn still has four pubs, The Victoria, The Robin Hood, The Terminus and The Commercial. Its funny no matter how small a town is they always have a pub (or two).

The Robin Hood Hotel - one of the four pubs in town

I won't ever get sick of taking photos of the old buildings.

The town is also host to an annual collectors, hobbies and antique fair held on the third weekend of August every year, hence the numerous antique stores in town. As with most of South Australian towns you also have a collection of beautifully restored historic buildings.

This porcelain Laurel and Hardy set grabbed my attention.
But at $75 I left them alone.

Shane was happy when he found the local Lolly Shop!

Clare, South Australia

We are now in a village called Clare. Most people who have been reading my blog for a while may know that my first grandchild's name is Clare. It's really weird seeing our little girls name on everything. The township of Clare is situated in the Clare Valley which is one of Australia's oldest wine going regions, best known for Riesling wines.  As with a lot of South Australian townships there are a lot of beautifully restored old buildings.

Clare Hotel

 

Clare historic buildings

 

Today we went for a drive through the Clare Valley, spoiling ourselves with beautiful scenery and interesting history. We stopped off at a tiny village called Mintaro to visit the historic house "Martindale Hall". Unfortunately photography was prohibited inside the house, so you'll just have to believe me it was pretty amazing. Martindale Hall was constructed in 1879-80 at a cost of 30,000 pounds. The owner Edmund Bowman Jnr. built this beautiful house to entice his fiancee to come out to Australia and marry him. There are several stories but she didn't end up marrying him and he married a local girl.
 


Martindale Hall

Copper Coast

The Copper Coast is situated on the northern Yorke Peninsula, which is exactly where we are at the moment. We have been on drives checking out some of the small townships in the area. We have also spent a morning fishing, but alas to no avail. When all else fails walk across the road to the pub and have Salt n' Pepper Squid.

When all else fails head to the pub for Salt n' Pepper squid

Port Broughton Hotel - majestic

Most of the towns in this part of the world are seaside villages and really quite pretty with great history. The first settlement we visited was inland and named Mundoora and was really tiny. Why did we go, they had a market. We are suckers for a market, and for such a tiny township it was pretty good.

Mundoora Soldiers Memorial Hall

Kadina is the largest town on the Yorke Peninsula. In the late 19th century, Kadina had a population of 20,000 due to the copper boom. These days the population is around 5,000.

This amazing Bougainvillea was absolutely beautiful.

This area sure has some magnificent houses

We then headed back to the coast to Moonta and Moonta Bay. Moonta's origins in 1860 were very fortunate - a shepherd noticed traces of copper on a wombat burrow. With the huge influx of skilled miners from Cornwall changed South Australia's cultural mix. Still now so many years on the township still cherishes its Corwall history.

Moonta Historic Station

Another township we visited was Wallaroo. The township of  Moonta may be the historic centre but Wallaroo is the apex of the Copper Coast. A deep sea port and home to the Spencer Gulf prawn fleet, it's a very popular holiday town.

Wallaroo was very pretty for an industrial town

Today we drove north into the township of Port Pirie which was founded in 1845 and is the site of the world's largest lead smelter. It also produces refined silver, zinc, copper and gold.

Historic Port Pirie Station

This Port Pirie was spectacular

Arno Bay

We arrived in the seaside village of Arno Bay yesterday and after setting Myrtle up, had another lazy afternoon. In 1863 this tiny village was originally called "Salt Creek Cove", then in 1882 the name was changed to "Bligh" after Capt. William Bligh. Then once again in 1940 the town had another name change to "Arno Bay". Back in the 1800's the town was a port that serviced local farming districts, importing super phosphate fertilisers and exporting locally grown cereal crops. Now it's main position is as a tourist fishing town. Hopefully it lives up to it's reputation and we have some luck in the fishing department. But not today as it's once again pretty windy. I think I have been caught by the fishing bug, I love grabbing my rod, setting it up (which I have just learned) and heading off to do a bit of angling.

This was a first - harvested, shucked and eaten with an hour!! Oh they tasted so nice :)

The Arno Bay Caravan Park is situated right on the foreshore overlooking the wharf. Last night it was so nice listening to the waves as they came crashing onto the shore. That's when it wasn't being interrupted by the guy in the van next to us snoring!! Boy he sure was loud!!

The view from Myrtle

This is a really lovely, clean caravan park. As you drive in there is a huge and beautiful rose garden with a sign "Belinda's Rose Garden" and park guests are invited to pick some roses to take into their vans. I couldn't resist these beautiful yellow roses. I'm not a huge rose fan but my late Mum and Dad had some beautiful roses and my Dad just loved yellow roses. The rose garden at Arno Bay is named after Steve the owners late wife Belinda who recently died from Asbestos related cancer. It's quite moving having her roses in Myrtle. There are even vases of roses in the amenities block.

They are not only beautiful but smell amazing

As we weren't going to get any fishing done we decided to head into Cowell to check it out. We also had to drive there to get petrol as the Arno Bay petrol bowser has been out of order since the earthquake two years ago. Cowell is a bit bigger than Arno Bay and had a really nice feel about it. There some lovely old restored buildings and from what I could tell they have a fairly production Art Group. They have started what they call "Crap Art" where, some lovely, some interesting painting are hung in the toilets around the town, from the public conveniences to the loo's in the pub. I love novel ideas like this.

The Visitor Centre is situated in a beautiful old building

The pub had some lovely stained glass.........

.........and a succulent pig on a spit for tonight dinner

The novel idea of "Crap Art".......

........ was a great idea

Yeah no cooking tonight. The caravan park had a Fish n' Chips night. For just $12.00 you got 2 pieces of local King George Whiting. 2 local prawns, home made chips and some yummy salads. It was quite a big meal - you can't beat $12.00