Day Six - Loddon Valley

Woke today to find the day was a cold and miserable one but the locals have been praying for rain so we couldn't really complain.

We headed south and spent the day criss-crossing the Loddon Valley, seeing such sights as Pyramid Hill, which we
scrambled around on, Little Lake Boort, which we drove right around, and Mount Korong, looking foreboding as dark storm clouds rolled in, between the intermittent showers of rain.

Little Lake Boort

We stopped for lunch in Inglewood and browsed some of the many antique shops mainly to get in out of the cold.
Then we headed over to a tiny middle-of-nowhere town called Moliagul. We did this for two reasons. One, it is the birthplace of John Flynn. And two, it is where the Welcome Stranger was discovered. If you're an Aussie, they are both names you should know. John Flynn's face is one we're all familiar with, he's on the twenty dollar note. He also happens to be the man who founded the Flying Doctors. He was born in Moliagul in 1880 and his father taught at the school. The school house is still standing, an old red brick building, so we checked that out and then had a look at the John Flynn Memorial. There isn't much left in Moliagul now, but back in the 1850's it was the site of a gold rush and had 16,000 residents at one point.

John Flynn Memorial

Welcome Stranger Monument

Two kilometres out of town we found the second memorial we were after. This one was placed in 1895 to mark the spot where Richard Oates and John Deason discovered the Welcome Stranger in 1869. The Welcome Stranger was the largest alluvial gold nugget ever discovered, weighing approximately 72kg. It was discovered only 2.5cm below the surface, but sadly it no longer exists as it was broken up to be weighed and sold.

Big Sis

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