Six reasons to visit Colac

1. Lakeside gardens
One of the great glories of Colac is taking a stroll through the botanic gardens planted by the shores of Lake Colac, around which this rich farming region was settled in 1837. Views out over the lake constantly appear through gaps in the foliage as one wanders the paths intersecting the gardens. This 12-hectare site was first planted in 1865, with the present layout designed by William Guilfoyle, the architect for much of Melbourne's Royal Botanic Gardens. Many come to admire the stands of bunya pines, the cypress trees originally from Baja, California, and rare elm trees.
Colac Botanic Gardens, Fyans Street, Monday-Sunday, 10am-4pm

2. Anyone for bocce?
You get a sense of what sort of community Colac is when you go to the Botanic Cafe on the lake. This is the former Botanic Gardens curator's cottage, with a magnificent view over the lake. Here the food is good, honest and well-priced, and might include a steaming bowl of soup or a big plate of roast vegetable salad. The crowd is a mixed bag of mums, grannies and students. A local care group manages it and some of the staff have special needs. What is truly special is the sports box in the corner. So order a meal to go, borrow a picnic rug and a set of bocce balls, then find a sheltered lawn in the adjoining Botanic Gardens and enjoy a summer's afternoon.
The Botanic Cafe, 1 Fyans St, open daily, 10am-4pm, 03 5232 2858

3. Baking memories
Anyone taking a road trip west along the Princes Highway in the past 60 years might remember stopping at Hulm's Bakery. The first bite into its Napoleon sponge, with its sponge base and top covering a layer of puff pastry slathered in raspberry jam, topped with pink icing and coconut, brings back childhood memories of which Proust would be proud. Here you'll find light-as-air cream-filled yeast finger buns, and vanilla slices with deep yellow custard filling from the eggs used in the creme patisserie (66 Murray Street, Monday-Friday, 6am-5.30pm, Saturday, 8am-1.30pm, 5231 2080). For a decent coffee, try The Farmer's Wife (136 Murray Street, Monday- Friday, 8am-5pm, Saturday, 9am-5pm, 5231 5666).

4. '60s retro
If this building was in Melbourne it would have been hipsterfied and turned into cafes and art spaces. There are two arcades off the main drag, side by side, mostly empty except for a local community radio station and 1980s arcade games - in full working order. Above Central Chambers is an art deco Peters Colac Pty Ltd sign. The arcade under this is lined with tiny shopfronts trimmed in stainless steel. At the end is a 1960s bowling alley complete with a few of the original features. In between the two is The Trocadero Cafe, owned by Lebanese emigre Charif Eid. He's landlord and plans to open a Lebanese restaurant in the old ballroom upstairs. Meanwhile, he serves za'taar bread and cheese-filled fatayer pastries in his equally 1960s cafe, complete with crazy paving polished marble floors.
Trocadero Cafe, 90-94 Murray Street, daily, 7am-7pm, 5231 2300

5. Rail trail
This 46km bike trail travels through rich, undulating dairy country to the start of the Otway Ranges rainforest. It is steep in parts and there are several sections that follow local roads and not a dedicated off-road trail. V/Line train services with luggage carriages suitable for bikes depart Southern Cross for Warrnambool, stopping at Colac several times a day.
railtrails.org.au

6. Lakes and volcanoes
The rounded folds of the Red Rock rise from the green flats of the dairy country below. Its summit is crowned by a mound of great red rocks - the reason for the name of this volcanic scoria cone made from ochre-coloured stone. From the lookout on the summit the view is outstanding. The great freshwater lakes, Colac and Corangamite, shimmer gold in the early summer sun. The landscape to the west is marked by dormant volcanoes, some looking like silent, kneeling elephants. Among the fields of gold and pale green are dotted little settlements, the lanes lined with hawthorn, the paddocks marked out by dry stone walls, and houses in the villages huddled together around pubs and old bluestone churches.
Corangamite Lake Road, Alvie

6reasons@richardcornish.com.au