There’s a kaleidoscope of colour in these Victorian holiday ideas

FROM the coast to the far north-west, there are plenty of places in Victoria for a great holiday. Here are 10 ideas for a vacation in locations known for their colour.

ARE you looking for a summer holiday with a difference?

Here are 10 ideas for a getaway in the sun, with a twist.

THE TORNADOES THAT WIPED OUT BRIGHTON

TOP 10 AUSTRALIAN PLACES TO SEE IN 2018

All the locations are named after a colour. It’s a little quirky, but there is a colourful holiday to be had out there.

INDIGO SHIRE

There’s no way that a visit to the Indigo Shire, in Victoria’s east, will leave you blue.

The shire has four main towns – Rutherglen, Beechworth, Chiltern and Yackandandah – that are full of activities that highlight the region’s mining past, glorious Victorian era architecture, gourmet food and premium wine.

Rutherglen is the centre of a wine region that’s among Australia’s best, renowned for the quality of its red and fortified wines, while Beechworth, Chiltern and Yackandandah and wonderfully preserved examples of gold rush charm.

The Indigo Shire is handy to Wangaratta and Albury/Wodonga and is a great springboard to exploring the high country and the mighty Murray.

BLUE ROCK LAKE

This reservoir at Willow Grove, near Moe, is a favourite for boating, swimming and fishing, and it’s noted as one of Victoria’s leading Australian bass fisheries.

There’s loads of accommodation a short distance away in the Latrobe Valley and West Gippsland, along with wine and gourmet food experiences, and the summit of Mount Baw Baw (just an hour away through grand mountain ash forest) is a natural delight in summer.

VIOLET TOWN

The town that’s famous as the home to Ella and Jessie Hooper of rock band Killing Heidi isn’t exactly noted as a tourism destination, but perhaps it should be because it’s an ideal place to experience the north-east.

It’s just off the Hume Freeway between Euroa and Glenrowan, right in the heart of Kelly Country.

Violet Town has a much loved market on the second Saturday of each month, a guided nature walk along the Honeysuckle Creek and Anzac Avenue, a tree-lined street honouring the district’s war dead.

It’s around 30 minutes’ drive to Shepparton and Nagambie. At the latter, you can explore top notch wines and some of the nation’s best thoroughbred studs on the Wine and Equine Trail (Nagambie is the birthplace of champion racehorse Black Caviar among many others).

Cool climate wines are available for tasting in the Strathbogie Ranges, south of Violet Town.

Euroa has a history trail that includes a bank the Kelly Gang once robbed, and nearby Avenel was where Ned Kelly went to school.

RED HILL

This is the place for gourmet food, great wines and refreshing sea air.

Red Hill is in the hills at the centre of the Mornington Peninsula, putting you minutes from safe bay swimming and the crashing surf along its Bass Strait coast.

The view from country-chic hotel Lindenderry at Red Hill. Picture: supplied

You can cruise high above the peninsula on the Arthurs Seat Eagle gondola ride, explore the Point Nepean and Mornington Peninsula national parks, try fresh seafood and produce, immerse yourself in local wines and fine dining or play a round of golf at renowned courses including Moonah Links.

It’s all within easy reach of Red Hill, where you can buy apples, strawberries and cherries in season, have a tipple at the Red Hill Brewery or several local vineyards, or visit the Red Hill Community Market and try its wide range of local food and produce on the first Saturday of each month.

RED CLIFFS

Red Cliffs, just outside Mildura, is the gateway to the Sunraysia region.

It’s almost refreshing to reach Red Cliffs. After a long drive through hours of mallee scrub and wheat fields, Red Cliffs is a riot of colour surrounded by grape vines and citrus orchards and a main street lined with blooming jacaranda trees in the warmer months.

Darren Minter is one of Mildura’s biggest orange growers, harvesting on his farm near Red Cliffs. Picture: David Geraghty, The Australian.

You can check out the glorious ochre cliffs along the Murray River that give the town its name, and use Red Cliffs as a base to experience the mallee scrub and wetlands of the Murray Sunset and Hattah-Kulkyne national parks, swim or ski in the Murray, try the region’s many wineries (Trentham Estate in Trentham Cliffs is a highlight).

There’s plenty of quality dining including celebrity chef Stefano de Pieri’s Stefano’s at Mildura’s Grand Hotel. Tour the historic Rio Vista mansion, Mildura Station homestead or Old Wentworth Gaol, see the mystic and ancient Perry Sandhills, or watch the world drift by on a river cruise.

PINK LAKES

About 20 minutes west of Ouyen, just north of the tiny town of Underbool, you’ll find the Pink Lakes within the Murray Sunset National Park.

This amazing complex of small salt lakes is made pink by a red algae that grows in the highly salty water.

The lakes formed where depressions in the landscape dip into the water table.

The result is a stunning pink hue that varies in intensity through the year but intensifies as rain refreshes nutrients in the water, causing the algae to re-produce.

Camping sites are available beside Lake Crosbie, and there are many walking, cycling and four-wheel drive tracks to explore the mallee country, which is home to more than 600 plant species.

Western grey kangaroos, emus, bearded dragons and a variety of birdlife abound.

There is also information about salt mining at the lakes, which ended in 1979, and the small community of mine workers that existed on the shore of the lakes.

GOLDEN BEACH

If a holiday with an uninterrupted stretch of beach is for you, Golden Beach might be the destination that you desire.

It’s on the narrow spit of the Ninety Mile Beach that stretches between Lake Reeve (part of the Gippsland Lakes) and Bass Strait, about 40km south-east of Sale.

Victoria's Golden Beach, on the narrow spit of the Ninety Mile Beach. Picture: Flickr, littleyiye

The beach is unpatrolled but you can swim, fish and walk along the sand for miles if you like.

Bush reserves nearby teem with wildlife. There’s an adventure playground, a beach lookout, a golf course and a caravan park. It’s a perfect stripped-back summer getaway.

BLACKWOOD

How about a holiday in the heart of the Wombat Forest and the spa country?

Camping and accommodation is available around the town, located between Daylesford and Woodend, both a short drive away.

You can hike through the Wombat State Forest, taste the waters from local mineral springs, check out the view from the top of Mount Blackwood (an extinct volcano) and examine the remnants of Wheeler’s Tramway, a disused track that carried logs felled by timber workers in the forest.

Blackwood is also an ideal base to tour the Daylesford region, Trentham, Kyneton, Woodend and the Macedon Ranges.

Carnivores will especially love to stop at Istra, a bacon and smallgoods manufacturer just outside Daylesford, to stock up on meaty treats from the factory’s shop.

THE BLACK SPUR

This name refers to the section of the Maroondah Highway that links Healesville and Marysville, through the Yarra Ranges National Park.

It connects the food and wine delights of the Yarra Valley and the Healesville Sanctuary to the picturesque Marysville region, with nearby Steavenson Falls a very accessible natural delight.

The road itself is like a cavern, lined with glorious tree ferns and mountain ash trees, that snakes up and over the Great Dividing Range at Dom Dom Saddle. It’s truly one of Victoria’s most stunning drives.

The national park is dotted with picturesque picnic areas and criss-crossed with walking trails.

RAINBOW

Rainbow, on the northern edge of the Wimmera, was named after a local property called Rainbow Ridge, which was named after a crescent-shaped sand ridge that was covered in multi-coloured wildflowers when the property was first settled.

Its wide main street, Federal Street, is the town’s commercial heart. The street has a tree-filled park where you will find 16 of the 23 murals painted around town to add a little extra colour to the town named for its colour.

The town of Rainbow, on the northern edge of Wimmera.

The town is close to Lake Hindmarsh, into which the Wimmera River flows, a chain of often dry lakes including Lake Albacutya that are linked by the intermittent Outlet Creek, and the Wyperfeld National Park.

In such dry country, the lakes and surrounding bush are a haven for birds and wildlife, and are a favourite of bird lovers especially.

Lake Hindmarsh, one of Victoria’s largest freshwater lakes, has many beaches and is a great spot for swimming, fishing and boating with many campsites available.

The national park features three unique landscapes – mallee scrub around the Rainbow end, the Big Desert in the west and a series of sand dunes and flood plains in the north, and it’s easily explored by four-wheel drive, with two-wheel drive access to some areas.

@JDwritesalot