…and surrounds. How you plan your stay will depend on season, budget, group or solo. Here are some ideas, if you are without car it’s still easy to enjoy Daylesford. V-line is extremely good value and stops not far from house.
My favourite things (are often free).
Lake Daylesford. Take an icy dip in winter or swim with joy all summer long. I will lend you pool noodles if you are like me, keen to just bob about in the middle of the lake. Just you and maybe a duck. There is a track which winds all around the lake, maybe 40 mins max walking if you do both halves across the bridge. Or extend the walk by veering off towards Sutton Springs, end up at Tipperary. Keep hiking all day really.
This is Duke Street in autumn, looking towards Italian Hill and the wind farm in the far distance. Me with my last dog! I have different ones now. If you want to come along on one of my walks, I’ll be happy to take you. I walk every day.
Breathe in the forest. The nearest bushwalks are very near indeed, go to the lake and keep going (you can walk all the way from Bendigo to Ballarat) or go to the end of my street and you will find Italian Hill which is super interesting and delightful. Walk all the way to Jubilee Lake if you have 30mins. I recommend bringing boots or shoes you can hike in. Also, be careful in warmer months as the snakes are present. The tracks for walking here are so numerous I can’t list them all, and many aren’t official tracks. For safety, don’t leave trails as there will be mine shafts all over the place. This is serious gold rush territory. I can show you some mines if you are interested. If you are a risk taker, tell me where you have gone so we can find you. Take a short drive to Mt Franklin and experience the crater. All the mounds in this landscape are old volcanoes. The small mounds are not, they are leftovers from diggings. If you see a small heap, there will be a hole nearby.
A highlight which s little known is Loddon falls if you are able to walk down some rough terrain. You trek along this flat plain and suddenly a dramatic wall of basalt opens up into a gorge with waterfall and swimming hole. Thoroughly recommend. There are many surprise locations like this. When we’ve had heavy rain, I like to drive to some of the watery locations around just to marvel in the forceful cascades of rushing water. The blowhole in Hepburn is a good spot too and very easy to get to. Sailors Falls if you are able to climb steep stairs, over 120 steps.
Browsing the shops. There are some delightful ones to visit. There is a sensational bookshop, Paradise Books, some quite exclusive apparel shops, some non-exclusive op shops, several galleries including the sensational Convent Gallery. Unmissable if you are into history as well, as you can explore nuns cells, the music room, the infirmary closest to heaven. In case you didn’t recover?In the middle of the main street (Vincent Street) are several interiors shops including the two story gallery at Clayfire and Dunbarlo Home at Alpha Hall and the art and lighting gallery by appointment loft on top, curatedx. A beer brewery, two gin distillers, a museum (Saturdays only). Handmade chocolates, antiques. Not to forget, the simply cavernous Mill Market at the edge of the village. A place where you will find it, as long as you are looking for the unfindable. Last thing I bought there was a carved antique wooden rubber glove mold. Love at first sight. Just outside town there is a chocolate factory and a Overwrought, the place where my signage, hat stands, metal tree, roof top cat etc all come from.
For a country town we are pretty glam, yet laid back in true Aussie hospitality style. Did I say I love it here? I do, I really do. Summer heat, cooling in the lake, autumn colour as the trees turn in the high air, winter with a bite in my cheeks as I brave a morning walk just before I succumb to a hot chocolate by the fire, spring with its absolute hysterical wealth of flower, growth, scented air. I cannot think of a favourite time to visit but if I had to name a day, I will say Easter. Because Easter is like Christmas but without the pressure, the weather is nearly always 100 percent magnificent, the church bells are ringing.
Jubilee Lake is a premium fishing lake which gets stocked a few times a year with rainbow trout, tench and redfin. You need to get a Victorian Fishing licence, then you are good to go. Prices start at $10, 2026. Senior card holders don’t need one, I believe, but do check as fines are hefty.
Cafes, bars, restaurants. We are spoiled for choice. There’s a popular chippy with very good fish, several pizza places (I will tell you my fave), several nice pubs, restaurants from the more mundane all the way to the top with restaurants such as Lake House, Surly Goat, Bistro Terroir where I’ve had the best steak-frites outside France, and Bar Merenda. Oh and Sault, and Virgin, you’d better come and stay a few weeks to eat your way through. Or do takeaway, we have a very good Indian, Chinese fusion, Thai, Mexican, more more more. We are a very small place for all these places. That’s because of YOU, and all the other visitors who come and ensure there are many restaurants thriving. Thank you.
Opposite me is St Peter Catholic church, and there are several more in my block. Regardless of creed, it is a marvellous to see the spires raise up above the buildings. The old Daylesford picture is from 1908, two years before my house was completed. Has construction commenced or are plans still at council? Zoom in and see.
The mineral spring water is not just at Hepburn springs, the pumps are quite literally everywhere. Sometimes a handpump, sometimes more sophisticated. Always worth a try. Can taste metallic, chemical analysis is usually on a plaque next to pump. After the gold rush ended, tourism to take the waters became the next big thing. Nowadays when we talk of being a spa town, people usually think of massage and other well being treatments. We certainly have those too. Hepburn Bath House is the best known. You can have individual treatments, or you can have a general admission pass just to part of the complex, or you can book a sanctuary pass. I did that, it takes a couple of hours. I thought I’d be bored but surprised myself with how much I enjoyed it.
Night life? We even have some of that. The Palais in Hepburn, local pubs and bars with regular live music. Soon we will have our cinema back, Phoenix at the Rex which is next door but one.
We also have the extremely popular Sunday Market at the old Daylesford railway station with a restored historical railway running to Bullarto and back. If you go, you might very well meet Steve who built this place, he is very involved with restoring the old stations now and I cannot believe how lucky I have been to have him build my house extension since I am not a railway station. Do say Hi.
Staying longer? Why not go further afield. Castlemaine is delightful, has a great botanic garden, heaps of art and antiques, my fave art supplies, great music venues. Detour to Vaughan Springs on your way there. Clunes for more gold rush buildings, Maldon because it’s incredible, Trentham for the falls and main street, Blackwood for Garden of St Erth, Kyneton for a sensational shopping street, Glenlyon for the General Store and Loddon Falls, Maryborough for the train station (as Mark Twain quipped in 1895: A railway station with a town attached) and real rural centre feel. Talbot for more surprises. Woodend and Hanging Rock. Will you solve the old mystery? Macedon, Lancefield, Carisbrook, Chewton, Malmsbury, Riddell’s Creek. Further afield there are magical names on the map such as Nowhere Creek. I have not been there but now I wish to go. Or how about Paradise, south of Gre Gre, north of Barkly? I really enjoy exploring this wonderful state with its history and geography. So much I haven’t yet seen.
We are between two major country towns, Ballarat and Bendigo. Both have art galleries and other noteworthy things, I especially enjoy Bendigo art gallery, some excellent travelling exhibitions go there. A good day’s outing. Just go for a cruise and see where you end up.
Or you can just stay here and let the world go on outside. Read, put on some music, relax.
Sister George Daylesford 