Australia Day in an old fashioned Australian town..

It seems fitting that we arrived in Wodonga close to Australia day.  We headed out to a little place called Beechworth yesterday.  It was steeped in history. As you drove in to town there was the old sandstone prison, the lock-up, the court house, the warden's office, and even the telegraph office which is still in use today. ( for fun). This court house was visited by the infamous Ned Kelly and family several times before his final hanging in Melbourne.

And on the right, the town park complete with gazebo and tall trees.  The difference in this park is that the trees were actually Redwoods and Bunyas.  You don't normally find Redwoods here in Australia.  The smell and texture of the redwood trees reminded me of Redwood City.  As you walk further in to town, the buildings have been kept up by the townsfolk.  It's so nice to see the care they've lavished on these old buildings. 

The old fashioned bakery and the old fashioned candy shop were very popular with the tourists.

Chris and I stepped back in time, walking together eating our double decker ice creams and wandering the streets, checking out the buildings and signs.

 

 

After that we headed into Chiltern.  It too was a small historical town.  And as we headed in, the parked cars lined the streets as some sort of a celebration was happening.  We watched the local Celtic dancers tapping on a wooden stage and headed back down to the Grapevine Theatre, where they have the largest grapevine in the world  (for 1935 Guinness Records) sitting in the portico at the center of the building.  

 

 

 

 

In the theatre itself, the original seats were there from the last 1800's with a stage front and center.  At the back of the theatre was the concession stand reminisce of the early 1900's.

 

Today, we're off to the mountains.