Arriving in Vic

 

With high expectations we booked into the Caravan Park right in town near the new second bridge. Echuca sits on the Vic side of the Murray River, right across from the smaller town of Moama in NSW. It's an old port town with an interesting history of paddle steamers which conducted the 19th-century river trade from the local wharf. As a result, the streets downtown are still lined with architecture from that bygone era and the tourist trade through the warmer months keeps the town alive. We love the river red gum forests that line the Murray; Echuca is only an hour upstream from Cobram where we lived 1988-2000. We have very fond memories and had thought this was a good place to settle. 

We scanned the websites for places for sale but the first news we discovered was that the annual Winter Blues Festival just finished 2 days ago. How could we have missed that? Then again, I guess there wouldn't have been any vacancies in any of the caravan parks if we had arrived then. 

We visited all the real estate offices. We narrowed down the area where we would focus our hunt. Between all the searching we enjoyed walks along the riverbank and downtown. We met up with my sister Judy and Roger on their way to Noosa and also Peter and Maggie visited from Bendigo. This is why Echuca looks good; we are only a couple of hrs from Melbourne and big regional cities like Bendigo, there is a train to Melbourne and the golf is good all year round. 

Despite having a lead on a real estate agent with integrity, and knowing people with local knowledge, we just couldn't find anything we were seriously interested in. But it has been only 4 days and we are now off to Wangaratta where friends Yve and John have arranged a house sitting job for us for 3 weeks. We can always drive back to Echuca if something comes on the market. The last thing we did before leaving was a letterbox drop around the streets of our target area near the Campaspe R. 

Wangaratta is 2 hrs further east and nestled under the Warby Ovens Ranges. It's substantially larger than Echuca with a population of about 20,000 as opposed to 13,000 and famed for its Wangaratta Festival of Jazz and Blues (held in October so we'll do it) and its proximity to some of Victoria's finest wine growing regions. The Ovens and King Rivers meet here and there are also 2 creeks that provide parkland and are followed by walking/bike trails. 

Our house sit job is located in Crisp St, just a short walk to Merriwa Park on the banks of the King R and the edge of the CBD. The home is a cottage that has been renovated at the back but still has the charming facade facing the street. Our biggest responsibility though is to look after Erik. He's a 6 yr old Ayrdale who immediately won our hearts. He gets 2 walks a day and this is a good opportunity for us to start looking at real estate. We also tend to 2 chickens who provide us with fresh eggs: at least they did initially.  

Meanwhile we got a call in response to the letter drop and found ourselves returning to Echuca with mixed feelings. Now that we have looked at Wangaratta we can appreciate that the bigger CBD means more retail on offer, there are 3 trains a day to Melbourne and it is on the Hume Hwy so direct to Melb or north to Sydney. What's more there are hills!

The place in Echuca turned out to be too grand for us, so while that was a dead end, we actually now have made up our minds to focus on Wangaratta. One of the big advantages is that we already know 2 couples in town and have met our housesit owners who strike us as pretty friendly too. And before they left town they introduced us to more besides. We have familiar faces to bump into as we walk Erik. That's something you just cant buy in other places. 

Homes on the market are few and far between though, so we spent the first weeks narrowing down where exactly we would like to live. We want to have easy access to the bike path network and that means close proximity to the creeks. I know, people in Lismore would be saying 'head for the hills' but we've checked the flood zone and inundation overlays on the council maps and will be sensible. A flood mitigation program was put in place for the creeks when the hwy was diverted around town too. Wherever you buy in this town you need to be conscious of flooding as the rivers carry not only rain from the catchment but snowmelt too. This is a good time of year to be seeing their behavior. 

Robyn York, who we also taught with at Kath. Sch of the Air, and her partner Rob also live here and we enjoyed a lovely roast dinner with the family. Robyn is still teaching but Rob invited us for a game of golf at Jubilee Golf Club, Wangaratta's challenging 18 hole championship course. It is said to be playable all year round but there was one hole that was particularly wet underfoot. It's actually located on the edge of the Warby Ovens National Park, and about 10 kilometres from the CBD. Its very pretty to walk around with undulating fairways set in natural bushland so home to a variety of wildlife, including kangaroos, wallabies and plenty of bird life. There were also views right across to the snowfields. That all helps when your golf is so rusty. 

I did a letterbox drop again one day while Eric played golf again; he's not comfortable doing it. We were invited to have a look at one home and once again it ticked many boxes but was just too big. Turns out it was built of rendered cement sheet not rendered brick as we had assumed. Not for us though the position and aspect just perfect. 

My brother's partner Beth was childminding her grandkids in Bright this week so we met up in Myrtleford for lunch. That's only 30 mins away. It was lovely to see her again and we enjoyed a walk around town fossicking in Op Shops and my new retail paradise Red Ramia, I will be returning there for sure once we own a home. 

Our homeowners, Prue and Ian, returned a few days earlier than initially planned so it gave us an opportunity to visit friends in Bendigo and Eric's brothers in Maryborough. It was good to catch up and the few days away from constantly thinking about where, how much and when was also good for us. Maryborough is 3 hrs away. Just before we left we went to a show at WPACC (Wang Perf Arts and Convention Centre) called Two of Us- Songs of Lennon and McCartney, starring Damien Leith and Darren Coggan. With just acoustic guitars, a grand piano and accompanied by a string trio we were very impressed. We were missing out on the Darwin Festival this year but this helped make up for it. We also have tickets for Kitty Flannagan when we come back. 

Returning to Wangaratta we moved into John and Yve's home. They moved here in 2018 after leaving the NT.  They were always keen for us to consider Wangaratta as they have really found their niche here meeting lots of lovely locals and joining like-minded people in organisations. In the last post I mentioned we caught up with them at Banka Banka Station as we came south. They are still away, heading down the east coast as I write. Driving back we did agree we find Wangaratta a good option. Judy and Rog spent the night with us on their way home form Noosa having defrosted over a couple of weeks from the Melbourne winter. Hopefully Spring will be bringing warmer weather any day now.

On the weekend we took a drive to Beechworth, home of the famous bakery, but more interesting to us the Farmer's Market and beautiful gorge. Once again this is only 30 mins from Wangaratta. That's the thing about Wangaratta, there is a lot to see and do in a proximity of 50kms and even more beyond that, including the snowfields and Murray. The golf might be a bit wet underfoot at this time of the year, it would certainly be drier on Echuca's sandy course, but there is so much more on offer. 

We really enjoyed the Kitty Flannagan show, laughed the whole way through. Much of the content was about the signs of getting older so we could relate to that. We were lucky to get the last 2 seats, not even together, but that didn't matter. She did 2 shows here and they were both sold out. 

We've had a few walks in the Warby Ranges just a 10 min drive from home. A couple of walks that are not too difficult or long to test out my knees. So far, so good. The views are spectacular and the waterfalls are gushing. The wildflowers are also appearing so just lovely. We've also explored some of the bike trails around town but they have lots more kms to travel once we are settled. In 2008 we joined a group of friends (some mentioned above) and rode the rail trail from here to Bright. That has been extended now to Harrietville but that's for another time. 

So we've seen everything on the market and nothing new has popped up. We have one iron left in the fire but the owner has to find what she is looking for before she puts hers on the market. We like the position and the photos on the web look ok but ...... until you get to walk through..... and how long will it take? 

Meanwhile we have lined up another house sit, this time in Rutherglen. Again that's only 30 mins away and we are heading over this afternoon to meet the owners. I'll keep you posted.