Chiltern, VIC – Walking Trails & Bird Watching

• Chiltern is the premier birding location in southeast Australia with about 200 species spotted on a regular basis.
• There are a number of walking trails through the Mt Pilot National Park
• Visit in spring to see the turquoise parrot, regent honeyeater, barking owl and square-tailed kite.
• Mt Pilot National Park is part of an Aboriginal cultural landscape that includes the traditional Country of the Yorta Yorta Peoples
• There are a number of established picnic sites located throughout the park, including Reedy Creek, a popular spot amongst campers and prospectors.
• With well-formed vehicle tracks throughout the park, it's a wonderful place for short or day-long walks, cycling and horse-riding, as well as car and four-wheel drive touring. 
• Visit Yeddonba – an important site for Aboriginal people – and you'll be able to view original Aboriginal rock art.

For the 10 best trails in the Mt Pilot National Park go to:

https://www.alltrails.com/parks/australia/victoria/chiltern-mount-pilot-national-park

 Murray to Mountains Rail Trail

Source: Hans de Kok / Shutterstock

• Wangaratta is at the start of a 95-kilometre cycling and walking trail, carrying you up to the town of Bright in the Australian Alps.
• This is the route of the Bright Railway Line, completed in 1890 and tracking the Ovens Valley for most of its course.
• Now the Murray to Mountains Rail Trail is a stunning outdoor experience, mixing beautiful mountainscapes and picture perfect valleys, with endless possibilities for detours at vineyards and gourmet food producers.
• As a rail trail the gradients are mostly light, despite the mountainous scenery all around, and the path is sealed for almost the entirety of the route, so you’ll rarely have to contend with traffic
• At Everton station you can also explore a spur taking you to the historic town of Beechworth, which is flush with heritage architecture.

Merriwa Park

Source: M. Volkova / shutterstock Picnic in the Park

• A real point of pride for Wangaratta is this urban park by the CBD, on the original course of the King River.
• In the 1950s the river was diverted using a levee, creating a lagoon in the park attracting ducks and other waterbirds.
• There are also towering river red gums throughout Merriwa Park, some that were planted when the park first opened in 1905, and others that have been growing for centuries and support a diversity of wildlife including gliders, possums and owls.
• When it comes to facilities, there’s an expansive lawn tennis complex, playgrounds for children, a ferny, picnic areas and barbecues.

Warby-Ovens National Park

• The steep granite peaks west of Wangaratta are at a transition in the northern Victorian landscape where the uplands give way to the plains of the Riverina.
• Warby-Ovens National Park was created in 2010 protecting the namesake ranges and their important stands of red river gums.
• You can get here in a few minutes to scramble over giant boulders and make the hike to Sailsbury Falls, what is at its best after heavy rain in winter.
• A prominent hill in the range is Mount Glenrowan, which was used as a vantage point by Ned Kelly and his gang.

Ned Kelly Museum and Homestead

Source: Wozzie / shutterstock Ned Kelley Memorial Museum

• The outlaw and gang leader Ned Kelly (1854-1880) is an indelible part of Australian history and continues to arouse fascination more than 140 years after he was hanged at the Old Melbourne Gaol
• He had his brutal last stand, a bloody shootout with the police in which he and his gang wore improvised armour plating, 15 minutes out of Wangaratta in Glenrowan.
• The Ned Kelly Museum is an appropriately kitschy but informative attraction, painting a picture of European colonial life in the 1870s and the dark side of the gold rush.
• The interpretive trail leads you through a replica of Kelly’s homestead, while the museum shows off a reproduction of his armour (the original is on show at the State Library of Victoria), as well as artefacts like his death mask.

Glenrowan Heritage Siege Precinct

• You can take a little walk around Glenrowan, stopping at a succession of places connected to the events of June 1880 and the Kelly gang’s siege with Melbourne troopers.
• Kelly’s plan centred on the railway, and an attempt to derail a police train, and you can check out the original stationmaster’s house, the railway platform and the site where Kelly was eventually captured.
• It’s interesting to think that many of the mature trees growing around Glenrowan were here in Kelly’s day, not least the “Kelly Copse”, where he is known to have tethered his horse.
• Another compelling thing about the siege site is that innumerable ammunition rounds were fired in the action, and every now and again bullets show up in the soil.

Northern Beaches

Source: Qambar Hasan / Facebook Kingfisher Beach

• On the Ovens River in the quiet, northern outskirts of Wangaratta is a reserve covering just over 10 hectares.
• This is a place where you can bathe in the river’s cool waters at two sandy beaches on the west bank, Kingfisher Beach and Platypus Beach.
• There’s a lot of wildlife around the Northern Beaches, including platypus ,long-necked turtles, possums, echidnas and bird like grey shrike-thrushes, kingfishers and eastern yellow robins.
• The riverside has dense native vegetation made up of river red gums, river tea tree, river bottlebrush and silver wattle, to name a few species

Wangaratta Arts Gallery

Source: Mattinbgn / Wikimedia CC BY-SA 3.0 Wangaratta Art Gallery

• The arts and culture precinct on the edge of the CBD, is by the modern Wangaratta Performing Arts Centre and the regional gallery, which opened at this striking heritage building in 1987. This is a former Presbyterian church, completed in 1899 and eventually sold off in the 1980s.
• Since the 2000s the gallery has assembled a noted collection, focusing on textile art, works in wood, small sculpture, pieces relating to north-east Victoria and works by artists of state and national importance.
• The collection isn’t on permanent display, but selections are put on show at regular intervals, along with travelling exhibitions.
• The gallery also plays host to the Wangaratta Contemporary Textile Award, the only prize of its kind in Australia.

King George V Gardens

Source: Foto-Ruhrgebiet / shitterstock King George V Gardens

• The history of this space has been charted back to the middle of the 1850s when it was a stables for the local police constabulary.

• The gardens’ fine old plane trees were planted in the 1860s to offer shade for the market and stockyards base here at the time.

• It wasn’t until 1938 that the space was officially declared a park, and you can make the most of picnic tables and a children’s playground.

• Right in the middle of the CBD is a peaceful little park where you can seek some shade and relax in the greenery.

Hurdle Creek Still

Source:  John Gnanasekaran / shutterstock Juniper Berries

• This small batch gin distillery was set up close by in Milawa in 2016. All of Hurdle Creek Still’s products are made and bottled on site, and the triple-distilled base spirit is produced using local grain with a traditional mashing technique.

• The juniper and blend of native botanicals, from hops to pink peppercorns, aniseed and citrus, are vapour-infused to ensure subtle and light flavours.

• You can call in at the still for a tasting ($7 for 6), which will be free if you make a purchase.

• Some picks from the range include the classic Yardarm gin, aniseed gin, cherry gin, grain jenever and other spirits like Yuzu, Pastis and Dark Cacao (chocolate liqueur).

Eldorado Dredge Holes

Source: Ian Crocker / shutterstock Eldorado Dredge Holes

• Not far east of Wangaratta, on Reedy Creek, is a giant relic from the gold mining days.
• Most of the mining in Eldorado was done with open pits, but the alluvial gold on the creek was hauled up using an immense floating bucket dredge weighting 2,140 tons and drawing the third-most power from Victoria’s State Electricity Grid after Melbourne and Geelong.
• The dredge operated between 1936 and 1954, during which time it helped produce over 70,000 tons of gold and just under 1,400 tons of tin concentrate.
• Today this massive hunk of machinery rests by the water, just off the Eldorado-Byawatha road.

Wangaratta Indoor Sports and Aquatic Centre

• Our modern indoor Aquatic facility features a 25m temperature controlled pool, a therapeutic Program Pool and a Toddlers Pool.
• We also have a fully equipped, spacious Health Club with the latest equipment, more than 50 group exercise classes per week.
• We also have three full sized stadium courts & six squash courts. The Wangaratta Indoor Sports & Aquatics Centre caters for people of all ages.

Lake William Hovell

• Lake William Hovell provides a great recreational area for fishing and boating.
• At the southern section of Lake William Hovell is the entrance to the Alpine National Park.
• Discover a myriad of tracks for four-wheel driving, plus access to fishing spots and walking.

Wangaratta Splash Park

• Wangaratta’s Mitchell Avenue Splash Park is the perfect place to bring the kids during the warmer months.
• The playground itself is large, well shaded and fully fenced offering a great place to let the kids run wild, but if the sun is even looking like being out good luck keeping them away from the splash park
• Tunnels, water cannons, hills, dumping buckets and a stack of other stuff will keep them cool and this place popular.

Reid's Walk, McCoy St, Eldorado

• Reid’s Walk is a shared path that winds its way through the former alluvial gold mining area, with tailings and settling ponds that Eldorado’s historic gold and tin mining dredge left behind
• The walk is 1.1 kilometres and takes 45 minutes on a Grade 2 formed track
• Beginning in the centre of Eldorado, access the walking track by taking MacKay Street and then parking alongside the signposted walk start in McCoy Street
• The track leads down to Reedy Creek and follows it upstream to a suspension bridge over the creek
• Following the creek you’ll be immersed in nature with abundant wildlife. Stop by one of the sculptured seats and take it all in – the perfect place to snap a photograph or simply take in the serenity. The swing bridge offers views over the creek and into the forests.

Wineries

• For a comprehensive guide to Wineries of the Wangaratta, Ovens and King Valleys, please go to:   https://www.visitwangaratta.com.au/See-Do/Food-Wine/Wineries

• These wineries include: Chrismont, Redbank Wines, Morrisons of Glenrowan, Wood Park Wines, Indigo Vineyard, Baileys of Glenrowan, Dal Zotto Wines, Booths Taminick, La Cantina King Valley, Pizzini Wines King Valley, Weathercraft Wines, John Gehrig Wines, Serengale Vineyard, Red Feet Wines, King River Estate, Glenbosch Wine Estate, Sam Miranda of King Valley, Brown Brothers Milawa Vineyard, Politini Wines.