Goulburn Valley – Wide Open Roads
Take an eagle-eye view of the Goulburn Valley and you’ll see an interconnected web of highways, backroads, train lines, rivers, creeks and irrigation canals. They connect the small towns with the regional centres. They connect the towns to Southern Cross Station. They connect the mountains where the Goulburn rises to the Murray River. They connect the weirs and reservoirs with the farms where the water is used to raise crops and cattle.
One of my favourite drives in the country is to head north on the Goulburn Valley Highway, then west just after Nagambie to Kirwans Bridge. This wooden bridge was made from hand-hewn river red gum in 1890 to cross the newly built Goulburn Weir. It is over 300 metres long and single lane, with passing bays built to allow two-way traffic. After Kirwans Bridge, the Murchison-Kirwans Bridge Road meanders parallel to the Stuart Murray Canal. The road passes old barns and homesteads surrounded by gnarled peppercorn trees before it swings around into Murchison. A stop at Longleat Vineyard for a bowl of pasta is par for the course.
Another great drive is from Wangaratta. The entrance to the Goulburn Valley goes through a gap in the Warby Ranges with grass tree forest on either side of the road. From here, I dog leg on the back roads through the farming country and head to Dookie for a cup of tea and jelly cake at the Emporium, or I pick up a bottle of red at Tallis Wines.
Then there is what I call the Gold Rush Entrance. Heading up the Midland Highway, the signs to Shepparton want to take you through the historic town of Stanhope. There is another more bucolic way across the Goulburn Valley through the forest gold town of Rushworth on the C345. Through the box forest, the C356 swings around the dramatic Waranga basin to Tatura, with its old hotels and rich migrant history.
With its combination of long straight roads, shaded country lanes, winding riverside drives and a major dual-carriageway highway, the Goulburn Valley offers a scenic road trip from any direction.
