Mornington Peninsular and Melbourne - Mornington Peninsula, Australia
Mornington Peninsula, Australia
Mornington Peninsula and Melbourne (briefly) 10th -17th December 2013
Leaving Wilsons Promontory, but unfortunately not the rain, behind me I tackle the twisty narrow road which is the only way off the Promontory. This road although metalled is littered with tooth juddering pot holes. Driving slowly I manged to avoid the worst of them but when I stopped to set up camp at my next destination there were several screws on the floor which had worked loose and everything inside the van which was not tied down was heaped in a pile on the floor.
At this point I feel entitled to say that having beeen to every state except Queensland on this trip (and of course Tasmania) the roads in Victoria have been by far the worst. I even came across pot holes on the M11 Freeway. In many places the holes have been patched sometimes several times, this often results in a worse surface than just a hole, which if you are lucky you can drive over or round. In other places the bitumen has been squeezed up into a large lump or ridge in the road and frequently the carriageway slopes violently towards the side, not perhaps so noticable in a car but with the trailer in tow it was very apparent, at times the trailer tipped at an alarming angle.
Reaching the main coast road reasonably intact I detoured to Philip Island, famous for it's Grand Prix Circuit and a nightly parade of penguins coming on to the beach to roost. As it was mid morning I was unlikely to see the penguins but I did drive by the Grand Prix Circuit, only motor bikes race here, the Formula1 Grand Prix takes place through the streets of Melbourne, I continued to Seal Rocks and the Nobbies, a group of islands off the south western tip, it was wet and windy and there were no seals to be seen but lots of nesting gulls. I drove right round the island which took about half an hour, the interior is still a farming community but the good surfing and swimming beaches have turned the coastal areas into a very popular and busy holiday destination for Victorian tourists. When I was there it was quiet but I gather it is crowded during the summer holidays. Returning over the bridge back to the mainland I soon arrived at The Mornington Peninsula where I was to spend the next 6 days.
Unfortunately the caravan park I had chosen at Dromera turned out to be quite poor, just 14 camping pitches which were squashed into a corner behind a petrol station, something of an afterthought. The bulk of the park was made up of scruffy caravan/cabins rented annually by people from Melbourne who like to think they have a beach house, at this time deserted but presumably busy during theholidays.
The one or two cabins available to rent on a weekly basis were let to a large group of schoolies who kept us awake until about 3 am. The last evening I arrived back to find that they had squeezed 20 tents on to five or six of the pitches and the place was over-run by 50 teenagers who were playing ball games and running between the few remaining caravans. It seems that they were on a bike ride and to be fair they were not badly behaved but there were too many of them, the noise was horrendous and the ameneties in adaequate. They went to sleep quite early but the schoolies partied until 3.30am and then the bikers started to pack up and cook breakfast at 6.30am so not much sleep that night. When I left I went to complain but the very rude lady would not apologise just told me I was lucky not to be there at Christmas, I consider myself to be lucky too!
While this was not an enjoyable place to stay it was conveniently position on to explore the southern part of the Peninsula. Mornington Peninsular is only an hour's drive from Melbourne and its calm sandy northern beaches facing the gigantic Port Phillip Bay, it have become the city’s playground. The first ferries bought holiday makers here in the 1870s when paddle steamers ran from Melbourne to Portsea, since then the narrow coastal strip has become an over developed and ugly series of strip malls and take-aways catering for the week-end and summer visitors
The second day I climbed ( by car ) up to Arthurs Seat, the highest point on the Peninsular, drove through the forest around Red Hill and visited visited a lovely garden surrounding a gothic revival house named Heronswood.
The next day I checked out another caravan park in Mornington and arranged to move there the next morning. From there I followed the coast road through Rosebud, (pretty name but not very descriptive of the strip malls squashed between the hills and the beach.)and Rye, passing blairgiowrie which is obnviously the sailing centre of the region, and on eventually this leads to the very smart town of Sorrento, famed for its old limestone buildings, cafes antique shops galleries and boutiques It is near here that Victoria’s first official settlers, a group made up of free men, convicts and marines tried to establish a small town in 1803. Unfortunately there was an inadequate water supply so that after a year or so they crossed the Bass Strait to Tasmania and finally settled there. There is a memorial and some story boards to mark the spot that they landed, but nothing of the settlement remains.
Beyond Sorrento is the most southerly habitation of the peninsula, this is Portsea and this is where the wealthiest of Melbourne’s elite have built their mansions, high up on the cliffs over looking the bay and hidden behind well groomed hedges, high walls and security systems.
There is little to see here apart from the fleeting view of the large secluded houses , a few select shops and a large mock tudor hotel on the beach. A far cry from the busy suburban sprawling sububia to the north.
Between Portsea and the extreme end of the peninsula is the Nepean National Park, between here and Queenscliff is the narrow passage which all shipping has to negotiate before reaching the safety of Port Phillip Bay and Melbourne. Because of it’s position on the approach to the port a large quarantine station was set up here which was in use from 1852 until 1952. Here anyone with a suspected infectious disease was offloaded to be kept under observation until they were either better, or, in the early days they had died. There are fifty heritage buildings including four hospital buildings (the one you were put in depended on the class you were travelling in the ship), cookhouses, sterilisation building and bathhouses.
After 1952 it was used by the army cadet School and later for a brief period housed Kosovan refugees.
Between 1880 and 1940 several fortifications were built at Nepean Point to protect Port Phillip the remains of these can still be seen along with the site of the army barracks.
The park also conprises the most unspoiled area of coastal vegitationon the Mornington peninsular and because of it’s remoteness is home to rare species including the black wallabyand the blue winged parrot.
Whilst I was in Coober Pedy I met two ladies who live in Langwarrin close to Mornington, I had contacted them when I arrived in the area and had arranged to meet them on Friday morning. Having moved to the new caravan park I set off to meet them in Mornington wondering if I woild be able to recognise them again after such a brief prevoius meeting, it seems as if they had the same thought but in the event had no trouble. We strolled through the main street of Mornington where there is a mixture of cafes, boutiques, gift shops and the more prosaic but neccesary supermarkets and food shops. We stopped for lunch and I then followed Sue to her house in Langwarrin where I stayed for the evening and supper. She was busy over the week-end but we arranged to meet up again on Monday when she would take me into Melbourne.
On Saturday I decided to take a look at the other side of the Peninsular, this overlooks Western Port Bay, Phillip and French Islands, and the notoriously dangerous Bass Strait. The scenery here is wilder and the beaches here are rugged and many not suitable for swimming. Thus the area has been spared ths development of the Northern side although surfers have been coming here for years.
Cape Schank and it’s lighthouse are at the most southerly tip ot the peninsular and worth a visit for the spectacular views of the surf crashing against the rocks below, the light house can only be visited on a fairly expensive tour which I declined having seen several other lighthouses on this trip. From here is is a short distance to the rock formation called London Bridge ( one of many so called). Moving on to the tiny fishing town of Flinders I came to a cross-roads with one or two shops on either side, I passed this on my way to the town centre but after an unsuccesful search I soon realised that this was the town centre. This is a charming and quite unspoiled community with steepcliffs leading down to a rock foreshore.
My next stop was Coolart wetlands and homestead. The so called homestead is in reality a large imposing house built in1895 by the parliamentarian and business man Frederick Grimwade as his family’s country retreat. After several other owners it was finally acquired by Tom Luxton in 1937.
Luxton persuaded the state government to declare the property a wildlife sanctuary; he created an artificial lagoon and wetlands which attract a great variety of waterfowl and other birds. His wife Gertrude developed beautiful gardens around the house where there are trees and plants from all over the world. Weather permitting (which it wasn’t) this would be a good place to spend the day, now owned by Parks Victoria the entry is free, you could sit in the tranquil gardens where there are the inevitable barbeques, or follow the trails round the wetlands where bird hides are strategically placed for viewing the wildlife. As usual the weather was dull although the rain held off but there were few birds or animals to see. The house and some of the outbuildings are also open to the public.
It is possible to walk along the beach from the wetlands to Balnarring and Somers beaches. These small sandy beaches are quiet and unspoiled, should I come here again this this definitely where I would head. Somers has a small store and café, and the promise of koalas although I was not lucky enough to spot any. Balnarring has just a few more facilities including a caravan park but not much else. Just up the coast at Stony Point one can catch the passenger ferry to Phillip Island.
Sunday was a domestic day spent washing, and doing assorted chores in the morning. In the afternoon I visited McCrae Homstead which was the first homestead to be built on the Peninsula in 1844. It is owned by the National Trust and is almost entirely original. The first owners were Georgiana the illigitmate daughter of an English Duke and her husband Andrew McCrae. Not making a great success of farming this steep rugged bush land they sold, in 1851, to the Burrell family.
The Burrells came from Bury St Edmunds and were related to the well known engineering family, Burrells of Thetford. I wonder what they thought of this untamed property on the side of an almost vertical hillside and covered in thick impenetrable bush, so unlike the flat gentle farmland of their native East Anglia. They must have liked it however because they stayed for two generations. When they sold it 75 years later it was bought by Georgiana’s great great grand son and later sold to the National Trust. Both families have donated furniture items which were originally in the house which adds to it’s authenticity.
For the evening when I had booked to go on a night walk through Moonlit Sanctuary Conservation Park, to see those animals which being nocturnal are not easily spotted during the day. This turned out to be disappointing, There were two families and myself including three young children, having been shown a snake in the visitor centre we were then all given a lantern and taken into the reserve. Within minutes all but one of the lanterns became so dull that we could hardly see where we were going, the animals, apart from a few kangaroos, were all in cages. The guide, a pleasant,friendly young lady had a torch with which she tried to pick out the various creatures but it was even dimmer than the lanterns. The saving grace were the children, ranging in age from about five to nine, they were enthusiastic and inquisitive, they asked lots of questions which the poor guide was not able to answer, they all seemed quite well informed about the animals we saw and probably knew as much as she did. Overall the visit which lasted a bare hour and a half was certainly not worth the $35 dollar entry fee.
Monday, my last day here was dedicated to day trip to Melbourne with Sue as promised. Travelling to through or around Melbourne is complicated by the sytsem of tolls and prepaid tickets which mystify the casual visitor. It is not possible to pay for the toll at the entry so you have to know your route and pay on line in advance, I don’t know what happens if you don’t have a computer and no-one could tell me. Locals have a tag on the car which they can top up when neccesary. Once in the city it is well served by a comprehensive tram system but again you cann ot pay on the tram but have to buy a $10 dollar pass which then has to be loaded with more money to pay for the actual fare, this turns out to be expensive if you just have one or two tram rides.
Luckily Sue had lived in the city for a while and knew her way around. We drove to St Kilda where we could park in the street for free. We had a look around here before catching a tram into the city centre. Directed by an off duty tram driver we found a shop which sold tram passes where I managed to get a seniors pass with an all day ticket for $6.50, still quite a lot for the two tram rides I took.
Once in the city centre we walked along the river, visited the aquarium, and the Anglican Cathedral, stopped for lunch in a food hall, passed through Federation Square, admired the decorations on the GPO building and stopped at Myres department store where people were queing in long lines to view the animated Christmas decorations in the windows. After looking around St Peters, the oldest Anglican church in the city we strolled on very tired feet back to Bourke steet and caught the tram back to st Kilda. Of course even this intensive visit only scratched the surface but thanks to Sue I saw much more than I would have managed on my own and at least I got a flavour of this vibrant multi-cultural city.
Having said our goodbyes with me promising to return the favour should Sue come to WA, I returned to Mornington to prepare to move on the next day.
To avoid the drive through Melbourne, I am going by ferry to Queenscliff but more of that in the next blog
My impression of the Mornington Peninsula are mixed. I disliked the commercialised, crowded beach developments of the Northern side with even Sorrento while classy and less developed was still very much a very expensive tourist mecca.
The Southern side was much more to my taste. In the hinterland there is still plenty of original native bush but much of the farmland has been superceeded by vineyards and orchards. Here there are pick your own fruit outlets and many trendy wineries where the food is said to be excellent, I have to confess being on a budget and also being on my own I did not try any of these.