Friday, May 09, 2014

On Our Way To Ballarat…..Day 46

9 May 2014

This morning we said goodbye to Apollo Bay and the Great Ocean Road. We headed north through Skenes Creek and up over the Otway ranges. We stopped for a minute near the top of the ranges to take in the view which included the West Barwon Reservoir.

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Continuing northwards we stopped at a tiny place called Beeac, a few kms north of Colac. On this trip we have found some of the nicest places for lunch at tiny towns and Beeac was one of these. The 2006 census says there are just over 200 people living in this area and they should be proud of the Windmill Park that was created in 2010 to commemorate the 150th anniversary of the town. During the late 1800’s to the 1940’s there were 6 people building windmills in the town at various times.

This is the lovely  Windmill Park that also has bench seats where you can sit and eat lunch or have a cuppa before continuing your travels.

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One of the windmill builders was James Prowse. This is one of his windmills in the photo below.

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He  had a shop which is below, where he sold hardware while the windmills were built in a wooden shed next door. James Prowse saw his windmills going to New South Wales and South Australia.

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The main street had few functional buildings but I saw some beautiful scenes such as this little space between two buildings in the main street.

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And this street view:

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We were settled in to our van site at Shady Acres Caravan Park on the out skirts of Ballarat.by mid afternoon. There is a great lush green area where Kurgan can run. When he does this he does his happy bark and it is nice to see a 13 year old dog running. We have arranged to get new tires on the car and to get the car serviced. Now if only my water leak could be sorted out so easily.

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