The May 2020 U3A Easy Walk was scheduled to take us to the historic town of Beechworth that dates back to Victoria’s gold rush era.
The town offers many nationally significant buildings, magnificent old avenues and a large number of parks and gardens. Plantings of the trees began in the 1860’s, many are protected by heritage regulations. The morning walk would have taken us through this area of the town; the Chinese Gardens and by Lake Sambell, originally the site of The Rocky Mountain Mining site.
The afternoon walk plan was to explore the various walks around the precinct of Mayday Hills, a decommissioned State Lunatic Asylum. The main building, which dates back to 1867, has been declared architecturally significant by the Heritage Trust of Victoria as a fine example of Italianate-style; many of the 67 other original buildings remain. The gardens cover an area of 27 acres, planted in the late 19th century as a botanical setting of exotic trees and shrubs donated by the Royal Botanical Gardens in Melbourne. The National Trust (Victoria) has classified over 200 Mayday Hills’ trees as significant.
The return drive would have been through part of the rugged Beechworth Historic Park along the scenic Gorge Rd overlooking Beechworth.
If you are interested in further information on the History of Beechworth, Walks, Mayday Hills, go to explorebeechworth.com.au then click on menu for sub-headings. If your interest is in the names of the Mayday Hills’ 200 trees classified by the National Trust (Victoria) go to explorebeechworth.com.au click on menu, click on Beechworth Treescape then download Treescape brochure.
Gone Missing: A CD of “Wildflowers in the Reef Hills, Benalla” by Vaughan Cowan; contains around 90 wildflowers recorded by Vaughan and Marion Cowan over the decades. If you find this CD, it would be appreciated if you could please return it to Margaret Walshe when convenient.
Wendy Sturgess
Margaret Walshe
The town offers many nationally significant buildings, magnificent old avenues and a large number of parks and gardens. Plantings of the trees began in the 1860’s, many are protected by heritage regulations. The morning walk would have taken us through this area of the town; the Chinese Gardens and by Lake Sambell, originally the site of The Rocky Mountain Mining site.
The afternoon walk plan was to explore the various walks around the precinct of Mayday Hills, a decommissioned State Lunatic Asylum. The main building, which dates back to 1867, has been declared architecturally significant by the Heritage Trust of Victoria as a fine example of Italianate-style; many of the 67 other original buildings remain. The gardens cover an area of 27 acres, planted in the late 19th century as a botanical setting of exotic trees and shrubs donated by the Royal Botanical Gardens in Melbourne. The National Trust (Victoria) has classified over 200 Mayday Hills’ trees as significant.
The return drive would have been through part of the rugged Beechworth Historic Park along the scenic Gorge Rd overlooking Beechworth.
If you are interested in further information on the History of Beechworth, Walks, Mayday Hills, go to explorebeechworth.com.au then click on menu for sub-headings. If your interest is in the names of the Mayday Hills’ 200 trees classified by the National Trust (Victoria) go to explorebeechworth.com.au click on menu, click on Beechworth Treescape then download Treescape brochure.
Gone Missing: A CD of “Wildflowers in the Reef Hills, Benalla” by Vaughan Cowan; contains around 90 wildflowers recorded by Vaughan and Marion Cowan over the decades. If you find this CD, it would be appreciated if you could please return it to Margaret Walshe when convenient.
Wendy Sturgess
Margaret Walshe
