8 October 2024 - Maryborough to Geelong

Up betimes (but a little late - it got down to -1 Celsius in Maryborough overnight more than amply vindicating the Prop's decision to book into a motel for our last night in Victoria).

Made a somewhat half-hearted attempt to locate the elusive Richmond Street but it has apparently disappeared!

Plan B was to attempt to locate the former business premises of Mrs P's maternal grandfather, Percy Hooker who was a cobbler by trade and also ran a bootstore - or, in the modern vernacular- was a footwear retailer R3.

We searched the main street of Maryborough but found no clue - but did find a few interesting buildings.

 The curiously named "Bull & Mouth Hotel

.        The Maryborough Post Office 

100 years later it is perhaps difficult to fully appreciate the importance that was attached to a reliable postal service in the days before telegrams, then faxes, then e-mails.

The Maryborough Courthouse...

...and, perhaps inevitably, the nearby "Supreme Court Hotel"

.               The Flagstaff Hotel

Herring & McMillan - the "scales" of justice are evenly balanced in Maryborough

Mandeville's Coffee Palace and the Paramount Theatre - just the ticket for a big night out

Elias Crameri & Sons, Produce Merchants

                        (i.e., Providores)

.         Maryborough Railway Station

The Victorian Railway Institute Croquet Club - surviving but not thriving?

Having left Maryborough aat about 11.30 am we arrived in Geelong at about 1.00pm and made for the bathing pavilion at Corio Bay - not to swim but to admire the view and waste a couple of hours before we were due to queue up to board the Spirit of Tasmania 2, for Devonport.

.               Corio Bay, Geelong

                           Ship ahoy!