On the way home

At the moment we are currently in Shepparton, only 75 km south of Tocumal, which is where we were staying exactly one week ago.     

The main highway, Goulburn Valley Highway, runs north from Melbourne, through Shepparton, and then joins the Newell Highway at Tocumal which runs north to Goondiwindi, Queensland.     Although I have travelled on various parts of this highway, I never knew its significance as a major road north to Queensland. 

We are no longer following the Murray River, although from Albury to a few kilometres past Shepparton we are following the line of the river, just further south.    We will cross it again when the river crosses the main highway, Adelaide to Melbourne, in South Australia.  

Yesterday we followed the Hume Highway (Sydney to Melbourne) which was bliss as it was an expressway with two lanes on each side of the highway.   And a well maintained highway too.

We took the exit to Benalla, and found a place to park the car and van, with some difficulty and plenty of discussion.

Benalla was Walter's home town, he lived here from 1953 until about 1961, although his family continued to live there for many years after that.   Sadly, most have passed away, or moved to other places.

Walter's family home, which is still well cared for, and now has a high fence in front.   I am amazed at how high the trees have grown in the last few years.

The church where we were married in 1967.

                                         

This house has nothing to do with Walter's family, but It has been beautifully restored and with lovely ornate cast iron lacework around the verandah.

Harrison's Hardware Store, which Rudolf (Walter's brother) managed until he retired was no more.   It has been replaced by a cheap goods shop.    I find this very sad.   It was a fantastic hardware store.

The main street of Benalla, with plenty of trees.   It was quite busy too.    

The bridge over the local river, Broken River, which flows into the Goulburn River, which runs through Shepparton.    Walter told me he used to jump off the bridge into the river below.   I can imagine his mother did not know about it.    And to think we would not let our children jump off the Henley Jetty, although I know they did do so.   Children are fearless, and parents see danger!

So many memories.

We then drove another sixty kilometres west to the city of Shepparton, where we are currently staying in a lovely caravan park just outside of the city.

Today we walked around the main streets.  So many shops!    Sadly most of the people were gathered around, and in, the big named stores at the side of the city.    K Mart, for example, was packed with shoppers.  We also noticed that the road on the way in was lined with 'strip' shopping.    Again, all the big named shops.    Bunnings, Woolworths, BigW being some of the names.

We found this beautiful leafy street, with wide pavements, plenty of trees and gardens, and only a narrow strip for cars.   

And then we crossed over this extremely busy street, with trucks and cars, to get back to the car.

Interestingly Shepparton has a very large migrant population living here.    This was a reminder that Walter's family were in a similar situation 70 plus years ago.     However, from looking at the services on offer here, they certainly have much better support.  

The beautiful lake, with paths around it.    I took Piper for a walk around part of the lake.

Next to the lake was the Goulburn River, which starts in the mountains and ends in the Murray River near Echuca.    Another very muddy river.

The Goulburn River on its way north to the Murray River.

Tomorrow we head south West, back to the main Melbourne/Adelaide Highway.    We aim to stop in Nhill, the town that no longer has music in its public toilets.