Exploring Victoria to the north of us.
I have just returned from a fourth ‘little break’ this year. It has been the year of exploring closer to home and I have to say that Victoria is endlessly interesting, mostly in ways I don’t expect. (Confession: I still read the Saturday Age travel section and hover over any pics I see of Tuscany or Provence – the pull of Europe is still there!)
SAM was the attraction for this expedition to the north of us. Shepparton Art Museum has the privilege of hosting the 2026 winners of the Archibald Prize for Portraiture, so off we went.
I associate Shep (as the locals call Shepparton) with fruit growing and canning (SPC) and also as a welcoming rural town that has taken in many asylum seekers and refugees. Unlike some of our politicians, I love all things multi-cultural, and especially the delights of diverse ethnic food.
Four years ago, on a brief day visit to Shepparton, we stumbled on Nedal’s Syrian restaurant in the Main Street, and the aroma and taste of his wonderful dishes had stayed with us. So we searched maps and found him on the first night and showed him a photo of the memorable meal we had eaten last time He reproduced it for us with great delight.
We are happy to know that his business has survived and he is well integrated into the town. His young adult son lolled on a couch with his mate as they scrolled on their phones. He undoubtedly has fitted in to his new country.
Having settled in to our surprisingly spacious apartment, and eaten and slept well, we were ready to tackle SAM.
The Archibald prize has a long history (it began in 1921) and is the most prestigious portraiture award in Australia. The finalists are sometimes frequent awardees, and are sometimes debut artists. There is much controversy over the choice of winners, but the array of skill in the finalists’ exhibition is breathtaking. We will always be proud that Peter’s entry was selected some years ago for the second round exhibition, the Salon de Refuses.
There is also a People’s Choice award from popular voting, but we missed that by a day. I have read since that the vote went to one of my favourites, Nick Stathopoulos’ red themed painting of Margaret Fink, who produced My Brilliant Career and other films in the seventies. She is in her nineties now and defied the artist’s request not to wear stripes by wearing an elaborate patterned outfit!
I am not an art critic, but thanks to living and travelling with an artist, I have upped my game over the years. I am often drawn to hyper realism, but appreciate many other styles. This exhibition seems to feature a lot of great hands as well as faces. The prize was awarded to Melbourne artist Richard Lewer for his portrait of an elderly Pitjantjatjarra woman. It is pleasing, but not in my personal top list.
We must learn to think ahead and book eating places! Both the gallery cafe and the popular Lemon Tree cafe were full, so we just went home and had a sandwich. The next day we booked and returned to The Lemon Tree for lunch and were rewarded with a superb, healthy and very pretty dish of prawns on sourdough with avocado, corn and salad. Worth waiting for!
With some persistence, we then found the Bangerang Cultural Centre. It has the distinctive of being the first Aboriginal owned and operated keeping place (I love that name) in Australia, and the first outside the capital cities. https://bangerangculturalcentre.com.au/
The exhibition is housed in the round, and our eyes adjusted to the low light, then opened wide! What a display!
Artefacts from all over the country, historic photos and amazing dioramas. These 3D displays were made by George Browning (1918-2000), who is known for his dioramas at the War Memorial. It felt as though the figures in the windows could move and come alive, and it was hard to tell where the great painted backgrounds started. So much to see and so much to learn.
The best part was meeting Uncle Kev, who took great delight in showing us around and telling us stories (there was no-one else there). Kev has curly hair and twinkling eyes and was surprisingly positive about growing up on a Mission. There are wonderful photos of his early history and family, including his mum with 14 siblings!
Staying in theme, we returned to SAM and saw the Heartland exhibition, which has a wonderful range of indigenous paintings.
Then downstairs the Kaiela arts and craft display, which had beautiful platters in subtle coloursmade by children at a workshop. https://kaielaarts.org
As we and our siblings age, we feel the need to see each other whenever possible. So our next expedition was to meet Peter’s sister: we drove to Glenrowan as a halfway point and she drove down to meet us. So that’s how we spent time with Ned.
After our catchup, which was fuelled by the biggest scones with the most cream I have ever seen on a scone, we had a look around this tiny town famous for the bushranger, Ned Kelly.
I have not been to Glenrowan for decades, back when the highway went through the middle of it. We showed our small children the larger than life sculpture of Ned, and they cried with terror!
Today it is a small cluster of cafes and Ned-themed places, with startling gunshots every half hour as the siege is re-enacted at the dedicated museum.
Looking for a loo took us to the stunning modern Ned Kelly hub, which houses excellent displays and interactive digitised material. https://www.nedkellydiscoveryhub.com.au/While I have never been a fan of a thief and murderer, I do admit that the issues are more complex and nuanced than I had realised. I was also impressed with Ned’s literacy, seen in the quotation in the photo.
With a little more time to relax and binge watch, we worked our way through Dustfall and Blue Lights, and finally watched the last episode (ever) of Up on SBS. We felt as if we have grown up with this cohort of people who have been part of a documentary made mainly by Michael Apted every seven years. He wanted to see if the seven year olds in the first one would follow a predictable path or not. In many ways, they did, but there were surprises. This last episode was quite emotional as we farewelled them in their seventies. We have shared their lives with ours and feel as if know them. We had a few discussions about the meaning of life, the influence of our faith and what has shaped us as we processed what we saw.
Then it was time to hit the road and come home. I asked AI to plan a trip for us that avoided the Hume Highway and Monash freeway (it was Friday arvo), to find a halfway lunch stop with something interesting and gentle for this senior couple to look at. Well, AI did very well!
It brought us home via the mountains, with a lunch stop in Yea. Like so many Victorian country towns, Yea has a huge wide main street, with lots of trees, shade and parking. We chose one of the AI suggestions, the Yea Bakery, from where we could see at least two others!
After a good old pie and sauce to stay in theme, we then followed AI’s instructions and found the Yea Wetlands Discovery Centre. Opened in 2023, it was modern and attractive, with great information and the mandatory gift shop. https://yeawetlands.com.au/discovery-centre/ It is so encouraging to see these restoration and conservation projects.
We were ready for some forest washing, so set off on the well marked paths, in spite of snake warnings (Peter later saw one sunning itself in the carpark). It is hard to describe the array of greens and foliage, the sounds of running water and birdsongs, and the pleasure of a breeze rustling through the bush on a perfect day. There is excellent signage and info boards, and the paths are beside and around the Yea River. In no hurry to return to the city, we rambled and looked and listened to the incredible birds, and felt deeply refreshed. God’s creation never lets us down.
There was one more thing that AI could not have known. I lived in Yea in 1951, when my parents were the Salvation Army officers there. We tracked down the building, long closed and we found it. It has been converted (good pun) into a home with attractive cladding and a garden at the front. But the rusted corrugated iron roof is clearly original, and the annexe where we lived at the back is still there.
I do have some memories (including when I stole the grapes from the harvest festival display) and it was strange to reflect on how many years have passed since then – most of my life.
This year of taking short breaks and exploring our home state has been amazing; so far we have been east, west and north. It is obvious where we have to go next! Looking forward to more discoveries.