Day 12 Tuesday 14/5/2024 Dimboola, sunny 17

We have a lazy morning. Which to us is a leisurely breakfast each in our favourite seats, Woody reading the newspaper online and me reading a few blogs (to get the real perspective of what’s going on in the world), and a couple of coffees.

When we arrived yesterday the manager couldn’t process our payment because communications were down and have been for several days owing to a Telstra upgrade. Thankfully the ATM in town is dispensing cash but we spend a lot of time reaching for a phone that is now a glorified clock.

Out of interest, Woody takes a walk up to the railway station, meets me in town and is keen to take me back there. The Overland, the train that runs between Melbourne and Adelaide stops at Dimboola. Gee, that means that I must have been here briefly in 1970! As it is the halfway point on this line there are about 70 train drivers who call the place home. And being in the heart of the wheat growing Wimmera there is a lot of grain shipped out of here. The walkway gives a great view of the old station, the concrete silos and the avian occupants who abound. Is it any wonder those pigeons are happily cooing, a warm solid home and grain aplenty. Shame about the excrement.

I spend an hour sketching in Tower Park (The site of the old Dimboola Hotel). The sun is warm, and people are stopping by to chat. Quirky is possibly the best way to describe this colourful clash of old bits saved from the fire. Iron, timber, bricks, even a bath now covered in mosaic tiles, with sensitive plantings to soften the edges. I couldn’t think of a nicer place for a quiet sketch.

Wandering around town, there is a fine mural by artist ‘Smug’ and two perfect examples of ‘street trees’. An old peppercorn reaches across the street to meet a Moreton Bay fig. This must be a well shaded spot in the summer.

By noon it’s warm enough to have lunch under the awning, before pulling on the boots again. Venturing down a lane to Nine Creeks Walking Trail I find a small weir that was built by Chinese gardeners and the bushfire charred remains of what was once a notable ‘canoe tree’. Where the bark had been removed to build a canoe, leaving the tree with a large scar. On this land that is known as The Common there is a towering red gum. It was here in 1863 that a party led by Aitken & Phillips camped here with the last remaining camels from the ill-fated Burke & Wills expedition. According to the plaque, local boy Billy Wright was to recall in reminiscences “the unexpected and exciting arrival of Aitken’s party and how the local Aborigines were understandably startled by the appearance and noise of camels and donkeys”. What a meeting place of cultures this must have been.

A dinner of spaghetti Bolognese is heralded by a multitude of chattering corellas.

Accom: $37.00

Note: The ill-fated Burke & Wills expedition set out to cross the continent of Australia from south to north in 1860. The tragedy of their journey is stuff of legend and worth Googling ‘Burke & Wills’. Suffice to say, why would anyone contemplate such a journey without experience, without befriending the locals, and feel the need to take an oak table?