Six reasons to visit Beaufort

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This was published 11 years ago

Six reasons to visit Beaufort

By Richard Cornish
The rotunda in Beaufort.

The rotunda in Beaufort.Credit: Ann Balla

1. STEAM PUNKS
COME Melbourne Cup weekend thousands of steam enthusiasts will head to Beaufort, west of Ballarat, for the 100th Lake Goldsmith Steam Rally. More than 2500 working steam artefacts, from quarterscale traction engines to 100 tonne steam shovels, will be hissing, roaring, growling and spinning driving wheels, on this dedicated 16 hectare site. The highlight this year is an extraordinary performance piece called Steam!. This brazen steam punk show involves performers, Victorian costumes, the pouring of molten bronze and a soundtrack that combines music, the sound of the steam engines and the voices of their owners to recreate the very first steampowered device built in Greece in 70AD.
100th Lake Goldsmith Steam Rally, Skipton Road, Beaufort, From 10am November 3-5. $15 includes entry to Steam! Performance piece 8.30pm, November 3-4 only. Lakegoldsmithsteamrally.org.au

2. APPLE MAN
ROB Pelletier is a bit of an identity around these parts. As well as broadcasting on local ABC Radio, he grows and sells more than 300 varieties of apples. There are the usual suspects, such as Granny Smith, a NSW-bred apple dating to the mid-1800s, and the Gravenstein, which dates to the 1700s from Denmark. Pelletier also carries some 30 cider apple varieties, plus unusual heritage varieties including an apple with red flesh and one called the twenty-ouncer, which produces apples weighing half a kilogram. Customers are welcome by appointment only.
Heritage Fruit Trees, 5349 2888, heritagefruittrees.com.au

3. SPARROWS CAFE
BEAUFORT local Vern Wilson transformed the blacksmiths’ workshop in the main street into a car garage after the First World War. The place is now home to Cam Russell and partner Heather Gourley’s Sparrows Cafe. “We had to scrape almost a century’s worth of grease off the fl oor before we could move in,” says Russell of the premises, which are now fi tted with decor he describes as “late modernism meets ’70s Swedish porn”. Here you’ll find good coffee, vegetable soup, toasted sandwiches and fat slices of chocolate Guiness cake. Russell is also busy handing out pumpkin seedlings in the hope that customers will enter the giant pumpkin competition held at the Beaufort Market in May.
Sparrows Cafe, 29 Neill Street, Thurs-Mon 7.30am-4.30pm, 0414 531 260, sparrowscafe.com.au

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4. IMPERIAL EGG GALLERY
RUSSIAN jeweller Karl Faberge based his famous precious-stone-encrusted eggs on the European art of decorating goose eggs. The Beaufort Motel’s owner Margaret Saunders has been collecting egg art ever since she was given a portrait of her parents carved into an emu egg in 1956. She believes her 600-plus collection of art made from eggs is one of the biggest of its kind in the world. It includes objects such as a bowl of grapes made up of 250 dove eggs as well as creations such as birds, orchids, cacti and clowns. There is even an image of Elvis carved into an emu egg. The gallery has tea rooms and a gift shop attached, too.
56 Neill Street,Wed-Sun 10am-4pm, 5349 2297, beaufortmotel.com

5. THREE TROUPERS PANTRY
KNOWN to locals as “The Red Door”, Three Troupers was first conceived as a cellar door (yes, the door is red) for the local beer of the same name. But it has evolved into a busy cafe serving — among many delicious delights — lamb and rosemary or chicken and leek pies encased in buttery puff pastry. It also champions food and wine produced in the Grampians and Pyrenees — such as Greenvale Pork and Grounded Pleasure Hot Chocolate.
44 Neill Street, daily 10am-5pm, 5349 2002, facebook.com/threetrouperspantry

6. OLD MOUNT COLE
TWENTY-five kilometres west of Beaufort lies a 360-million-year-old volcanic outcrop called Mount Cole, or Bereep- Bereep to the local Aborigines. Timber harvested from here supported mine shafts in the Ballarat gold rush, were laid as sleepers on our railways and fed the steampowered engines of the area. By 1907 the best timbers had gone. More than a century of regrowth makes this a local beauty spot with kilometres of walks through tall forests and fern-lined gullies leading to the summit of Ben Nevis, offering views across the western plains, the Pyrenees and out to the Grampians.
Search for Mount Cole at www.dse.vic.gov.au

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