Six reasons to visit Bairnsdale

1. IT’S SHOWTIME
NEXT week is the annual Bairnsdale show. Now in its 133rd year, the show hosts a collection of good old-fashioned, Victorian Agricultural Society-approved, cut-throat competitions based around raising animals, growing plants and baking cakes. People come to see who has the biggest bull, best peas or lightest ginger fluff sponge in East Gippsland. Get there by 10am and watch the wood chop, move on to the pie-eating competition, and see the pet parade at 11.15am. There’s prizes for the prettiest, scruffiest, fluffiest pets, a best-dressed dog award, and one for the hound with the waggiest tail. The show’s signature event is an award for best single-stemmed rose. That’s at midday. Horse events follow. Bairnsdale Racecourse and Recreation Reserve, Forge Creek Road, November 10.
Gates open 7am. Adults $10, children 6-15 $5, bairnsdaleshow.com.au

2. ABORIGINAL CULTURE
THE Aboriginal people of the Kurnai nation, which covered most of Gippsland, were great fishers. They worked the lakes, rivers and beaches spearing flounder and flathead in the shallows and collecting mussels and other shellfish along the shore. At night they would paddle out in their canoes and attract fish to the surface with fire before snaring them in hand-spun nets. On display in the Krowathunkooloong Keeping Place, an Aboriginal cultural museum in the heart of Bairnsdale, is a bark canoe made at Lake Tyers more than 150 years ago, as well as hand-made nets and fish traps and other cultural displays.
Krowathunkooloong Keeping Place, 37-53 Dalmahoy Street, Mon-Fri
9am-5pm. Weekends by appointment, adults $6, students $4, 5152 1891.

3. KIDS’ PARK
THERE’S a massive slide clinging to the hillside and a 50-metre flying fox at Howitt Park (Princes Highway, just east of Mitchell River). This large riverside reserve, with play areas and picnic facilities, is the perfect place for families to break a long drive. Look out for an old river gum with a 4-metre elliptical scar, where Aboriginal men cut out bark to make a canoe more than 150 years ago. The park is also home to the Sunday Market, on the fourth weekend each month. Something of a local secret is the ladies who set up laminex tables in the clubrooms every Friday morning selling cakes and savoury foods for charity. Next door is Lake Whadie Cafe (1 Princes Highway, 5152 6060) specialising in gluten-free, meat-free, healthy meals, often with an Indian flavour.

4. ART GALLERY
EAT Drink and Be Merry is an exhibition of items connected with food in Gippsland from European settlement to today. It includes cast-iron pots, fine china from the art deco period and ephemeral food packaging at the East Gippsland Art Gallery, and runs until November 16. Next door is the rather beautiful yet somewhat bizarre Bairnsdale Courthouse. Built in 1893 of red brick and stone, it combines early modern and European baronial styles featuring turret towers and soaring chimneys with Australian flora and fauna carved into the archwork.
East Gippsland Art Gallery, 2 Nicholson Street, Tues-Fri 10am-4pm, Sat 10am-2pm, free entry.

5. GOOD COFFEE
WHEN Clare Haussegger returned to Bairnsdale two and half years ago to raise her kids in the fresh country air she bought the cafe selling the best coffee in town. Housed in the main drag, Two Spoons Cafe offers pick ‘n’ mix style breakfasts all day, with scones baked daily served with lashings of pure cream and twinberry jam (for just $4.50). Delicious.
Two Spoons, 85 Nicholson Street, Mon-Fri 7.30am-5pm, Sat 7.30am-2pm.

6. RAIL TRAIL
THIS rail trail runs almost 100 kilometres from Bairnsdale almost to Orbost along the old railway line. It crosses a dozen creeks and rivers, traverses wetlands, cuts through forest and meanders through villages in the foothills of the Great Dividing Range. The scenery morphs from bucolic farmland to remnant rainforest and the passing parade includes wallabies, echidnas, bird life, lizards and venomous snakes. It is one of the best rides in the country with V/ Line train services terminating close to the trailhead and transfer services from Snowy River Cycling (snowyrivercycling.com.au) en route in case of breakdowns. Affordable accommodation is available in the towns along the trail, with some riders opting to spend time in Nowa Nowa and take a canoe tour on the dark, mysterious waters of Lake Tyers (minglingwaters.com).

6reasons@richardcornish.com.au