Creative Clunes

We arranged to have the tyres on the van replaced, so decided it would be a good time to relocate to try another free/donation camp at Burrumbeet Lake. We dropped the van at Tyre Power, and couldn't be happier with the service. We then headed 36 km north to Clunes and the closest dump point – still can't believe Ballarat doesn't have a public dump point. (The Eureka Caravan Park will allow travellers to use the dump at a cost of $10). Our choice was to drive to Clunes, and we are so glad we did. What a surprise Clunes was, just picture perfect. Clunes has become a hub for books, writing and creativity. There are only about 20 international booktowns in the world, and Clunes is one. A two day festival is held every May with the largest collection of books for sale in Australia. Workshops and talks are a feature of the festival. The town is so interesting and also 'lost in time' with many of the buildings dating back to 1800's. Our first stop was the dump point, which is located outside the old school house. The school house is now a private residence and houses a collection of about 6,000 rare bottles. It is open a different times during the week.

Many movies have been filmed in Clunes including Heath Ledger's Ned Kelly, when the main street was meant to be Jerilderie and Euroa and also Mad Max. There are some quirky shops and creative artsy shops. There are also a few cafe's in the village. We stopped at Widow Twankey's Ice Cream Palour and Cafe, which also is attached to an old fashioned lolly shop.

The first 'official' gold claim in the Victorian Goldfields was made in 1851 in Creswick Creek, near Clunes by James Esmond, but in fact small amounts of gold had been found the year before by W. Campbell on the property of Donald Cameron at Clunes. This was kept quiet, and soon other miners started digging when they noticed indications of the services of gold analyst Dr George Bruhn being utilized. These became known as the Clunes Diggings.

After picking up the van we headed to Lake Burrumbeet. This is the second of the three free / donation camps close to Ballarat, and we stayed two nights. There is a lot of camping around the lake and we chose a section with a view across the lake to a wind farm. There are a lot of wind farms in this part of Victoria. Lake Burrumbeet is the largest of the 4 shallow lakes in the Ballarat region and is approximately 24 square km.

Being a long weekend in Victoria there were a lot of jet skiers and speed boats about. We didn't mind the noise and it was interesting to watch those who were obviously learning to ski. The lake is good for boating, swimming and fishing, but we didn't see anyone catch any fish. There are some Aboriginal camp sites on the northern banks of the lake, and the name Burrumbeet comes from the Aboriginal word 'burrumbidj' meaning muddy water, and it was. It was a beautiful free camp and one must be fully self-contained and take all rubbish with one. The first European settlers in the area came in 1838, when Thomas Learmouth and his brother took up a squatter run on the north side of the lake. The run was called Ercildown, and it was once the largest sheep run in Australia. We were impressed there was no rubbish anywhere. We had a lovely couple of days ...

... and even saw the sunrise coming up over the lake one morning.