A broad brush description with apologies to all serious historians and cartographers.
Welcome to the Western District! Where are we? We are in Victoria, in the south eastern corner of Australia. Take a pointed brush to a map of Victoria; place the tip on Geelong, the District’s main port; make a solid fan-like sweep to the South Australian border then lift the brush. You will have just broad brushed (literally) Victoria’s Western District.
Distances: From Geelong, (about 75kms south west of Melbourne), to Nelson, on the coast and just shy of the Victoria-South Australian border is approximately 350kms, and from Dunkeld in the north, in the foothills of the Grampians, to Warrnambool on the coast is roughly 100kms. However, exact boundaries have never really been agreed upon, which is why approximates are de rigeur.
Travelling around: There are still many little tracks and gravel roads around the Western District but these are local roads. The original bullock tracks were long ago turned into bitumen roads, and although the boundaries of the District still meander rivers, skirt topographical features and may even reflect a boundary or two of early pastoral runs, today, the Western District is crossed by main roads and four major highways – the Hamilton, the Midland, the Glenelg and the Princes Highways. There is rail to major towns but by far, travel and transportation across the Western District is via road.
The Hamilton Highway (B140): cuts almost straight across the District and starts in Ryrie Street, Geelong then heads west through Inverleigh, Lismore, Mortlake, to Hamilton and Casterton just beyond.
The Princes Highway (A1): heads in a south westerly direction from Geelong via Winchelsea, Colac,Camperdown and Terang to Warrnambool then around the coast to Portland and on to South Australia. A few kilometres along the Princes Highway out of Geelong, there is the exit for the B100, otherwise known as the Great Ocean Road, which starts at Torquay, hugs the coast until around Apollo Bay, where it heads inland to cross the Otway National Park, then returns to the coast at Princetown for some spectacular views over the Southern Ocean. It turns inland again at Peterborough and meets the Princes Highway again at Allansford.
The Midland Highway (A300): is a north westerly exit out of Geelong towards Ballarat, the city of handsome buildings built on the proceeds of gold which was discovered there in the 1850s. Heading out we pass names such as Batesford and Bannockburn, now like satellites of Geelong but an important part of the Geelong wine making history, which began in the 1840s, was wiped out in the 1880s by the vine louse, phylloxera vastatrix, and began with a clear bill of health again in the 1960s when Daryl Sefton, a local vet and his wife Nini, planted vines near Bannockburn. Further up the road is Lethbridge, where the vines of Lethbridge Wines can just be seen, then further along to Meredith, noted for its cheese, with the Brisbane Ranges to your right in the distance. Continue on and travel through Elaine and either skirt Ballarat at Buninyong and head across to the Glenelg Highway or stop at Ballarat and have a look around. And remember, don’t forget to look up: the buildings are lovely, set on wide, open streets almost big enough for a cricket pitch this is a grand old town, although, strictly speaking, (and we never are), not in the Western District.
The Western District is small enough to become acquainted with and large enough to breathe and enjoy the space around you. Long recognised by both indigenous people and early European settlers as a natural food bowl, which it remains today, the farmers and producers work within some of the most beautiful and spectacular landscapes that range from rolling hills, volcanic plains, almost lunarscapes, to breathtaking coastline.
The Glenelg Highway (B160): northernmost in the District, runs from the outskirts of Ballarat to Hamilton, where, if travelling further south the name changes to the Henty Highway (A200). In truth, I have travelled the Glenelg Highway many times but from Ballarat to Hamilton probably no more than a few times, but I know the area out to Linton well as there are so many farm supply companies located in small industrial areas. More often than not I do a loop in the other direction: from Hamilton, up to Dunkeld with the Grampians on the left, on to Glenthompson, through Wickliffe, take a look at the Hopkins River, on past Lake Bolac, Westmere and Skipton. From Skipton I usually head south, through Mingay to Lismore, but you have the option of heading up further north, via the C172 past Lake Goldsmith to Beaufort (on the Western Highway) or back to Ballarat.
A spot of history
Long before the arrival of Europeans, the region had provided abundant food for the indigenous people and it has been only in more recent times that we have come to understand that the rich land, so suited to agriculture that was described as, “…like an Englishman’s park”, was no coincidence. Though quite different from European methods of land management, the indigenous people had an intricate relationship with the land, and followed an environmental management system, which enabled them to harness and harvest the wealth of the region’s natural flora and fauna. (Refer, “The Biggest Estate on Earth” by Bill Gammage. Allen & Unwin).
A significant influence on the way the landscape looks today is the legacy of the wool clip. Since European settlement, the Western District rode the ‘sheeps back’ and the great wealth that this ‘golden fleece’ produced in the 20th century meant that considerable investment remained in the District by way of re-investment in farms, stock and breeding development, farm buildings, and services in regional towns. Although there is still a sizeable wool clip today, far more significant is the contribution of the Western District to the first links of the food chain. Primary industry activities across the Western District of Victoria have changed, are evolving and continue to develop.
Like most farming regions in Australia, the District has had its share of bad years – drought, low market prices and high feed prices. Perhaps that old saying, “When the going gets tough, the tough get going”, has its origins in farming?
More than most, those involved in farming, know what it is to have backs against the wall just to survive, but under such pressure, many a new business has been forged. Across the Western District there are businesses that have evolved in this way, which helps explain the diversity of primary industry here today:- meat, dairy, cropping, viticulture, forestry, fishing and aquaculture. Across this unique region of Australia’s rugged southern coast and the wide stretch of hinterland beyond, farmers on small, medium and large farms, and producers, both artisan and large, old concerns and new companies are all engaged in producing quality and innovative foods.
If you know of farms, individuals or companies making their mark in the food chain or if you know of someone that you would like to tell me about producing food here in the Western District of Victoria, please drop me an email at:- westerndistrictproduce@gmail.com
