Wandiligong is a quiet community 6 km south of Bright. Its population is about 250 people who work in the apple orchards and small holdings, its cottage industries and in the neighbouring districts. Established in the 1850s during the Victorian gold rush, it was at one stage home to over 1000 people with schools, public library, churches, shops and hotels. Several trails lead down to the diggings turned over in search of gold, which ran out by the end of the century.  The whole town is now registered with the National Trust as a historic landscape and features historical buildings such as the Manchester Unity Public Hall (built in 1874), the general store, several churches and a number of quaint cottages.

Main attractions of Wandiligong are Australia’s largest living hedge maze, the largest apple orchard in the southern hemisphere, historic buildings and the Alpine Park, and The Wandiligong Nut Festival. There are several walks as well including the Wandi Wander, Royal Bridge Walk and The Diggings Walk with its Chinese Swing Bridge giving a hint to some of the locals of old.

We visited Wandiligong Maze, walked the Diggins Walk on the first day of your visit and went to the Wandiligong Nut Festival next day.

It was a pleasant sunny spring day when we went to the Australian Garden in Cranbourne. It is a place of beauty, enjoyment and education that can be appreciated at several levels – as a celebration of the diversity of Australian plants, as a source of knowledge about our environment and its management, and as a demonstration of sustainable practices for home gardeners. This project for the Royal Botanic Gardens showcases more than 100,000 plants including 1,000 trees, 160 native bird species, 20 native mammal species, 18 native reptile species, 11 native amphibian species over 11 hectares. It is a new Botanical Garden - first section was opened in 2008 and the second one in 2011.

We spent almost a day there exploring heathlands, wetlands and woodlands, reading ALL information signs and discussing them with our son. Absolutelly must visit place for those who enjoys Australian flora and walks.

Long time ago when I was spending my weekends with my grand-mum, I loved to read a book about roses. Actually, I loved to look at the pictures of these beautiful flowers, imagine myself being a princess somewhere in England. I grew up and my wish came true: we went to the real rose garden with LOTS of flowers. We spend a half of the day in the Victoria State Rose Garden, Werribee in November 2013 and I was sooooooooo happy to be there!

I posted some photos of roses which I took there. Please note that the best time to visit the garden is November and March-April, so do not be late!

West of the Byaduk caves, near the limits of the Harmans Valley flow, are a number of unusual clusters known as Lava Tumuli or blisters. These unusual circular mounds or hummocks of rock, up to 10 metres high and 20 metres in diameter, were caused by the pressure of the liquid lava flow beneath the thin crust of the lava tubes. These lava domes are considered to be unique in Australia and most likely rare on a world scale.

Since most of the tumuli are on private ground, they are fenced it and can only be seen from some 100 meters away from Old Crusher Rd. It was not far away from Byaduk caves, so we decided to went there on our way to Melbourne.