Off We Go!!

 The time has finally come when we can get away in the van  again.  We decided to have a look at some of the country towns that had joined the Silo Art trail and added street art as an inducement to visit.  First up was St Arnaud although the ulterior motive was to chase up a little extra detail on the family history.  It is an historic town that grew out of the gold mining boom in the mid 1800s.  The town was named after a French Field Marshall of the Crimean War

Now the town is more to do with the agricultural sector.   There are some enterprising locals who have worked up the street art in the town.

We managed to find an excellent restaurant that had just reopened so we had en excellent evening meal to kick off our adventure in the west.

Around the town, there are remnants of the past gold and silver mining era.  The old open cut mine remains but the deep shaft mines are now closed.

The area is surrounded with bush and some of the areas have been fenced off to preserve some of the native vegetation.  It is a harsh environment with some very hardy plants.  Trying to live off this land would have been no fun.

While we were in St Arnaud, Claire had a chance to catch up with some of her relatives.  Her great grandmother was born here and it had a special place in her mother’s history.

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