MELBOURNE TO WANGARATTA

Welcome to our New Year’s Wangaratta Tour!  With chauffeured pickup from home, we are transferred to meet our O’Shannessy’s Quality Tours coach and crew. We’ll make a stop for morning tea enroute to Mansfield on the eastern shores of Lake Eildon for our lunch stop. From here, we make our way to Wangaratta where we’ll base ourselves at the delightful Quality Hotel Wangaratta Gateway for the next three nights. Unpacking just once, we join our fellow travellers at the motel restaurant for our first dinner together.

OVERNIGHT:  Quality Hotel Wangaratta Gateway, WANGARATTA

YARRAWONGA AND LAKE MULWALA

This morning we make our way to Corowa, the small town on the New South Wales side of the Murray River. We stop in at the Federation Museum to see the collection of material relating to the Federation of Australia and the part Corowa played in its development.  Following our tour, we head to Yarrawonga where we join the MV Paradise Queen for a luncheon cruise on Lake Mulwala. The lake is dominated by a vast number of trees standing in the water and the lovely homes along the foreshore. Lake Mulwala was formed by the completion of the Yarrawonga Weir, which in turn was part of the massive Lake Hume project to harness the waters of the Murray for irrigation. We top off the day with a stop in Rutherglen on our way back to Wangaratta. This evening at approximately  9.30pm, look to the sky for a delightful New Years Eve Fireworks display, visible from our hotel.

OVERNIGHT: Quality Hotel Wangaratta Gateway, WANGARATTA

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Following breakfast we travel to Beechworth - Gold Country!  This imposing historical town will remind us of those exciting gold rush years, with many landmarks still surviving. The discovery of gold in the 1850’s brought with it a flurry of activity and growth. The magnificent buildings, 32 of which are listed by the National Trust, and the beautiful gardens are a legacy of the gold rush days.  We have some free time to wander around this lovely area. Next we make our way to Albury where we enjoy our lunch at the Kinross Hotel. Following lunch we head across to see the vast Hume Weir and the imposing weir wall. Built in 1926 to assist in irrigation downstream, the weir now provides a popular venue for a host of aquatic activities. This afternoon we drive through the historic village of Chiltern, a fascinating small historic town of some 1400 people which is distinguished by its historic streetscape of well-preserved brick buildings and old-fashioned timber verandahs. We return to Wangaratta for some time to relax this afternoon before our farewell dinner.

OVERNIGHT:  Quality Hotel Wangaratta Gateway, WANGARATTA

WANGARATTA TO MELBOURNE

We have a leisurely start this morning before we farewell our hosts to begin our journey home. Silos are drawing crowds to small country towns in Victoria, so we’re off to do a little silo spotting of our own. Our first stop today is in Tungamah to see brolgas and a kookaburra. In Devenish, see Cam Scale’s artwork representing the changing role of women in the military – a First World War nurse and a modern-day combat medic. At the Goorambat Silo we see a Barking Owl, which is critically endangered. We’ll also make a stop here at the Uniting Church to view the stunning depiction of "Sophia" the female aspect of the Holy Spirit.  Each silo has a different artist and a different story! After lunch in Benalla, we’ll take a drive to see some of the Street art – artists from around the world were brought together to paint murals on bare walls, some over three stories high. We then head home with some fantastic memories of our New Year’s Tour.  No need for a taxi or lift, – our chauffeurs will be on hand to take us straight to our door – all part of the O’Shannessy’s Quality Tours superior service.