Dimboola day 1

Our next stop was Dimboola (Tom Dooley to Pete). This has been the most surprising town of our trip by a country mile, but in a good way.

The drive from Echuca was interesting. We like to give Anne the full driving experience, so on this leg we were driving down a single land road. Not as in single lane in each direction, but a single lane to be shared by traffic going in each direction. Fun!! We stopped at Charlton Bakery for the best meat pie of the trip so far. Also drove through the town of Minyip, where The Flying Doctors, The Dry (starring Eric Bana) and The Dressmaker were filmed. We met the old school principal of Minyip School when The Flying Doctors was filmed. All the students were signed up to Actors Equity. Money was paid to the school which would pay for excursions for the kids.

Finally arrived in Dimboola. Most of the town is shut Tuesday and Wednesday. We are here Tuesday and Wednesday. We left Pete and Graham finishing the vans setup so that the girls could walk into town to the Forbidden Forest shop, as it was due to close and was, of course, closed on Wednesday. Fabulous shop full of lots of puzzles, fairies, gnomes, Christmas and steam punk themed items.

We met a few locals and everyone told us the same story; that the town has been revived by the arrival of a Melbourne couple who bought the old bank building, converted it into the Imaginarium and have completely changed the town. But of course the Imaginarium is closed Tuesday and Wednesday. So we were expecting a dull day on Wednesday.

Spent the evening abusing each other over a game of Uno No Mercy and spotting possums. See if you can spot the babies. Also look for the photo of Stevie with her namesake.Read more