This not one of my usual walks, in fact it is a walk that I had never done before, and am unlikely to do again because it is a bit too long. I mainly did it to draw a circle around all the walks that I normally take, with the exception of those along Scott Parade. On most mornings I pick routes within this circle, often using some of the subsidiary streets that run north and south within this area. (I now realize that I have not recorded some of these intersecting streets in these walks, perhaps I will come back to them later.)
This walk starts out along the Bunny Track but takes the steps just after the underpasses that leads up to Victoria Street. From there this walk travels along Victoria Street to the west, first on the north side and crossing to the south side at Queen Street. At this time the fish and chip shop is not open. Further along we pass the various buildings of the St Alipius catholich church including the hall, church, bishop’s house and schools. A year or so ago all the railings were deeply festooned with ribbons regarding the child abuse that occurred at St Alipius, but most of them have now blown away.
On this walk I went all the way down Victoria Street to the roundabout with the Eureka Flag flying in the middle. This is situated on Bakery Hill and marks the location of the monster meetings of miners and supporters in late 1854 that led to the rebellion at Eureka a few weeks later.
From the end of Victoria Street there is short linking street to Main Road which was the main road into Ballarat during the gold rush era. It leads eventually to Geelong which was one of the landing ports for the migration to the gold fields and which was easier to traverse rather than attempting the trek direct from Melbourne, even though the distance is considerable shorter.
After a short walk along Main Road you come to York Street and from there this walk goes almost direct to the top of the street, taking a little diversion up Klein Street to view the shops and the entrance to the Warrenheip Gully walk we’ve used a couple of times earlier. What I find interesting is the gradual change in the architecture as we walk up York Street, from the small cottages of earlier times to the brick veneer of post war years and, after we reach the crest, the much more modern developments on the reverse slope.
At the roundabout after the crest of the York Street hill we turn left and walk down Fussell Street, then along part of Eureka Street, all locations I’ve photographed before, cutting across to Charlesworth Street and then home. By the time I got there almost three hours had elapsed and I was feeling quite tired, but chuffed that I’d done it.
Leigh Edmonds little box of stuff 