Clunes, the Book Town. What a wonderful day! Ken chose a perfect day for our train trip on 19 March. Clunes, a pretty town 36km north of Ballarat, owes its origin to the discovery of gold in 1851. From 1851 to 1893 when gold mining eventually came to an end, Clunes was an important gold production location in Victoria. Surrounded by grasslands, meadows and pastures the town has preserved many of its historic buildings until today and is recognised as one of architecturally most intact gold towns in Victoria.
On a bright and sunny morning a cheerful group set off around 8am by local train, happy to be out and about again after the lockdown. Most of us travelled together from our local stations. At Southern Cross station we were joined by Janice and Neil then boarded the train an easy 2 hour journey to Ballarat before continuing on to Clunes. On arrival at Clunes we were met by Phil (a school friend of Ken) our friendly and very knowledgeable tour guide, a true ambassador for the town. Phil led us into the town (an approx. 1 km walk) relating the history of Clunes and pointing out the important buildings. After the tour of the town we were feeling the hunger pangs and gravitated to the National Hotel where we were booked for lunch. Over lunch it was revealed that Steve was celebrating his birthday on this day. We spontaneously serenaded him with a dulcet rendition of ‘Happy Birthday’, wished him well and many more. Our tummies now gratified with a generous lunch some of us headed to the Bakery but – alas – their shelves were almost bare having sold most of their products for that day.
Phil then drove us in the Hotel’s Shuttlebus to a lookout for a good view over the town and guided us the site of the original goldmine that remains a deep hole in the ground (pictured above). To see this we scrambled through tall grass and thorny rose bushes and were rewarded with a lovely view of the town and valley on the other side.
All too soon it was time to return to the train station. On the way we stopped at the old original heritage listed library building that is undergoing extensive renovations. We also learnt that Clunes was used in the ‘Mad Max’ movie – the scenes of the invasion by Toecutter’s gang. The shop where the bikies throw a towns-person out from is now a respectable cafe. The wide streets are still much the same as seen in the film. We thanked Phil for so generously taking the time to show us around and bade him farewell. The train departed at 3.15pm and after a comfortable journey we arrived safely back home tired and happy. Thank you Ken and Liz.
Helga Anderson 19 March 2021
