We’re having a few days at the RACV Resort at Inverloch, a coastal town to the south east of Melbourne. It took about two hours to get here although a couple of stops added to the time.
We left Melbourne on the busy Monash Freeway, driving through the outer south-eastern suburbs passing Berwick and Packenham. When we were young, these were country towns but now they have been absorbed into the greater city of Melbourne.
The town of KooWee Rup was a good place to stop for a sandwich. It is a small town reclaimed from marshlands at the head of Western Port Bay. Today it is a service centre in a fertile district known for its asparagus production, market gardens, potatoes and dairying. Historically it has battled against the vast swamplands between the town and Western Port. It’s name comes from a Bunurong Aboriginal word which was probably ‘ku-wirup’ and means “plenty of blackfish” or “blackfish swimming” – a reference to the fish which lived in the swamplands on the shore of Western Port. The settlement was originally known as Yallock Settlement but when the railway arrived, the station was named Koo-wee-rup.
A small detour off the South Gippsland Highway took us into another little town named Loch. It is a beautiful, historic place set in a valley of the foothills of the Strzelecki Ranges. The surrounding rolling hills are characterised by deep, rich soil and the area has a consistently high rainfall. Today, partly because it is an easy day trip from Melbourne, it has a thriving craft community with a number of cafes, craft shops and antique shops on its charming, tree lined main street, Victoria Road. Judging by the number of tractors driving down the main street, it is still very much a farming town.
One of the historic buildings in Loch is the brewery and distillery. The building was the former Union Bank of Australasia and is a two storey red brick structure with a gable roof. In its day it had a residence on the upper floor which was typical of banks in the old days
Another old building is the former Royal Hotel.
Just after leaving Loch, we came across a lookout that gave us a view over the rolling hills of this area of South Gippsland. It looked very green, as it should, since we had double our normal rainfall in November.
It was only a short drive from there to our destination at Inverloch. Historically, Inverloch, with its access to Venus Bay and the dramatic coastline of the Bunurong National Park, was a destination for coal miners from Wonthaggi. Today it has become a popular holiday resort town with cafes and gift shops where people from Melbourne come to enjoy the coastline, bushwalking, exploring the beaches and rock platforms. It is a charming, bustling holiday town.
It has a large frontage on Anderson Inlet which is rather boring and doesn’t contribute much to its scenic appeal. However, there is a good fishing location at the jetty.
Our room at the RACV resort has something of a view towards Bass Strait but we will see more tomorrow when we explore some of the interesting features along the coast.
