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| The flower
gardens and War Memorial at Bairnsdale
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Bairnsdale (including Lindenow, Nicholson
and Mitchell River National Park)
Major rural centre in the East Gippsland
The attractive rural centre of Bairnsdale is
located 280 km east of Melbourne via the Princes
Highway. Only 14 metres above sea level it is
one of the principal towns of Eastern Gippsland
and is used as a base by people wishing to
explore the rich natural charms of the region.
It offers ready access to the lakes in the
south; the mountains, streams, caves, snowfields
and national parks to the north; the pastoral
plains of the west, and the picturesque
coastline of the south-east. As well as these
obvious tourist attractions the region around
Bairnsdale is a centre for grazing, wool,
dairying, timber and fishing which are the other
principal industries of Bairnsdale today.
Originally inhabited by the Kurnai
Aborigines, the area was explored by Angus
McMillan in 1840. It was McMillan who named the
Mitchell River on which the township stands. Two
years later Frederick Jones became the first
European settler in the area when he settled at
what is now Lucknow, using the land to breed
horses for the Indian market.
Archibald MacLeod was the first settler to
take up land in the area now covered by the
present town. He called his run "Bernisdale"
after his birthplace on the Isle of Skye. Legend
has it that the name was changed to its present
spelling when MacLeod was surprised by the
number of "bairns" (children) which had appeared
in the settlement. However, it seems more likely
that the spelling was merely altered to fit
local pronunciation.
In the 1850s and 1860s the town grew as a
result of its location on the river and its
access to the sea. It became a supply port for
the East Gippsland goldfields until the railways
were established later in the century. Goods
were shipped into Lake King, up the Mitchell
River to Bairnsdale then hauled overland. Ships
were then loaded with cattle products and wool
from the surrounding area for the return trip to
Melbourne. The hops cultivated in the Mitchell
Valley between 1868 and 1916 were also
transported to Bairnsdale for shipment to the
hop kilns. A bridge over the Mitchell River was
commenced in 1870 and completed in 1875. A lift
bridge was originally envisaged so that ships
could continue along the Mitchell River to the
original wharf.
A post office was set up in 1856 and the
township was surveyed and gazetted the following
decade. A police station was established in
1862, a courthouse, school and post office were
built six years later and the railway arrived in
1888. Barges conveyed wattle bark down the river
to Jackson's tannery which commenced operations
in 1876. A factory producing mining tools was
opened the following year, an ice and butter
plant in 1891, and a fruit cannery in 1907.
Attempts were also made to develop an oil seed
industry between 1890 and 1910.
In 1920 the town experienced a riot as a
result of a visit by the evangelist and
teetotaller, Tennyson Smith. Later in the decade
immigrants from the south of Italy began to
arrive and, as a consequence, the production of
vegetables grew in importance throughout the
region. In 1942 Bairnsdale won a national
competition for providing the government with
the largest war loan of any town its size.
During the Second World War the RAAF also
established a training centre in the area. The
town itself, independent of the shire, was not
proclaimed until 1967.
One of Bairnsdale's most famous residents was
the writer Hal Porter who spent much of his
childhood in the town. He worked for a time on
the Bairnsdale Advertiser and wrote of these
experiences in his autobiography Watcher on the
Cast-Iron Balcony (1963). He returned many years
later to work as a librarian and, in 1977,
published a history of the town called
Bairnsdale: Portrait of an Australian Country
Town. Contemporary playwright, David Williamson,
and NSW premier Jack Lang are two other
memorable figures who passed some of their youth
in Bairnsdale. Lang and poet Henry Lawson
married the town's Bredt sisters.
Bairnsdale Festival week is held each March
and the annual show is in November.
Things to see:
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| Bendigo Bank
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Historic Buildings
1. The Court House and Shire Offices
Some of Bairnsdale's architecture is also of
interest. The most striking building in the town
is the Court House in Nicholson St which was
opened in 1894. It is recognised as one of
Victoria's finest examples of late 19th century
architecture and is considered of some
significance to the development of an Australian
style. Its geometric exterior combines gables,
towers and mullioned chimneys in an intricate
and unusual way and is dominated by a large
cylindrical tower with a conical roof. The
facade of the entrance contrasts plain brick
with an arch of elaborately sculpted stonework
featuring Australian flora and fauna. The main
chamber retains the original cedar bench and
some exceptional carved cedar panelling.
Next door are the former shire offices
(c.1868) which now house the Nicholson Street
Gallery. It is usually open weekdays from 10.00
a.m. to 4.00 p.m., tel: (03) 5153 1988.
2. St Mary's Roman Catholic Church
Make sure you stop and visit St Mary's Roman
Catholic Church. It looks more like an Italian
church than an Australian one. The reason: an
Italian painter named Francesco Floriani, who
worked in the area during the Depression, was
commissioned to paint the interior of the
church. The result features murals, stations of
the cross, and a ceiling which features hundreds
of figures in its contrasting depictions of
heaven and hell. The commission was executed by
Francesco Floriani, an Italian painter who was
working as a labourer in the area during the
Depression. The building was constructed in two
sections. The sanctuary end was begun in 1913,
with the church opening the following year. The
tower end was completed in 1937.
3. Bairnsdale Historical Museum and
Regional Resource Centre
The Historical Museum and Regional Resource
Centre in Macarthur Street contains artefacts of
the past, including newspapers, machinery and
other implements, postcards, photographs and
other memorabilia and research material. The
two-storey building was designed as a
Presbyterian Church and, in 1891, functioned as
one of the first local secondary schools
-Bairnsdale College - later becoming St Andrews
College. Direct sunlight flows down the
stairwell due to the architectural design of the
museum. It is open Wednesdays, Thursdays and
Sundays from 1.00 p.m. to 5.00 p.m., tel: (03)
5152 6363.
Howitt Park Adventure Playground
An attractive spot for a rest or picnic is the
Howitt Park Adventure Playground on the Princes
Highway. There are coin-operated barbeques,
toilet facilities, swings, sand pits, slides,
see-saws, bridges, poles and other equipment for
children of all ages. The park was named after
anthropologist and politician, Alfred William
Howitt, an early settler of Lucknow who headed
the party that located the remnants of the
Bourke and Wills expedition. It contains trees
once used by local Aborigines for the
construction of their canoes and it is
speculated that the reserve is the burial spot
of Bruthen-Munjie, a local tribal chief. A cairn
in the park honours the memory of Gippsland
explorer, Angus McMillan.
Shops
The Hillmay House Antique Museum, on Olivers
Road (tel: 03 5156 8293), features an antique
display, the Jolly Jumbuk Country Craft Centre (tel:
03 5156 8500) sells local craft work and
Bairnsdale Clocks, with over 400 antique clocks,
is the largest provincial clock shop in the
country. They carry out repairs, operate a cafe
and sell parts, souvenirs and ceramics. The shop
is located at 176 Nicholson St, tel: (03) 5152
6962.
Krowathunkooloong Keeping Place and
Bataluk Cultural Trail
The Krowathunkooloong Keeping Place focuses on
the cultural heritage of the Gunai (Kurnai)
people, past and present. There are guided tours
and talks, displays, art and craft exhibitions,
and cultural activities for groups. It is
located at 37-53 Dalmahoy St, tel: (03) 5152
1891.
The centre is also a focal point of the
Bataluk Cultural Trail which extends from Sale
in the east, through Stratford, Mitchell River
National Park, Bairnsdale, Metung, Lake Tyers,
Buchan and Orbost to Cape Conran in the west. It
follows the trails and trading routes of
pre-colonial days and focuses on elements of
Koorie history and culture, including Dreamtime
stories, traditional lifestyles, the Den of
Nargun, Legend Rock, Aboriginal Keeping Places,
archaeological sites such as canoe trees and
shell middens (some dating back 10 000 years),
cultural centres of the region, and aspects of
European invasion, colonial settlement and
present-day existence. At Bairnsdale the focus
is on Howitt Park, Krowathunkooloong and
Mitchell River National Park.
Mount Taylor Trail Rides
The area around Bairnsdale is amongst the most
varied and picturesque in the state. Horse rides
and camping trips in the area are supplied by
Mount Taylor Trail Rides at "Lindcrest", a
property 13 km north of Bairnsdale at 918
Bullumwaal Road, past Wy Yung, tel: (03) 5157
9295.
Lindenow
A few kilometres west of Bairnsdale, along the
Princes Highway is the turn-off to Lindenow, a
grazing, dairying and agricultural area which
was named after a town in India and established
as a squatting run in 1842. A few kilometres
away is the Grass Vale cattle parade featuring
fourteen breeds of cattle, working stock horses,
milking demonstrations and barbeque facilities.
Vineyards in the area include the Glovinda
winery on the Lindenow Road or the Nicholson
River Winery on Liddells Road, 15 km east of
Bairnsdale.
Mitchell River National Park
The scenic, 163-hectare Mitchell River National
Park can be reached by continuing along the
road, past Walpa, and taking the Dargo Road,
crossing Iguana Creek and turning right into
Waller's Road. The park's flora includes stands
of kurrajong, yellow wood, kanooka, orchids and
pittosporum. It is possible to see satin
bowerbirds and one of the rainforest gullies
contains the Den of Nargun, the home of a
mythical Aboriginal monster said to have
consumed young people who strayed too near the
entrance of its cave. The Den is in fact a
cavern of huge stalagmite and stalactite
formations often fronted by a curtain of mist
which overhangs the entrance due to the water
which falls from the ledge above. It is situated
in the bed of Dead Cock Creek, within a pink
sandstone gorge first noted by Alfred William
Howlitt. The Den features in novels such as
Angus McLean's Lindigo (1866), and in Providence
Ponds (1950) by Stanley Porteous who worked as a
schoolteacher at Glenaladale around 1905, a
small town in the vicinity which began as a
station of the McLean brothers in 1846.
Elsewhere in the park Bluff Lookout provides
fine views of Woolshed Gully's sandstone cliffs.
Green Gates Gallery
10 km east of Bairnsdale, along the Princes
Highway, is Nicholson. Green Gates Gallery is
situated in a restored church set in natural
surroundings on the highway. It houses a
selection of paintings, ceramics, woodwork,
furniture, jewellery and sculpture, tel: (03)
5156 8788.
NIcholson River Winery
The Nicholson River Winery, established in 1978,
produces dry red and white wines. The cellar
door is open from 10.00 a.m. to 4.00 p.m.,
extending to 5.00 p.m. in holidays (please ring
in adavance). There are picnic facilities and a
children's playground. To get there follow the
Princes Highway east of Bairnsdale for 12 km
then take the signposted left. After 3 km turn
left again to the winery, tel: (03) 5156 8241.
