The Long and Winding Ride: Episode 7 – Buffalo River to Beechworth: A taste of Italy

 The Long and Winding Ride

 

Episode 7  Buffalo River to Beechworth: A taste of Italy

 

In this episode we cross over the Ovens River and head up into the hill country around Mudgegonga, Stanley and Beechworth. Our lunch stop is at Murmungee Lookout where we will taste a smorgasbord of Italian-inspired gourmet delights procured in Myrtleford. 

 

Buffalo River to Beechworth via Mudgegonga and Stanley 

 

Buffalo River Valley: a great place for a bike ride (pic: author)

 

Buffalo River

The locality of Buffalo River had a team in the Bright District FA in the 1930s. The maroon and golds competed against Bright, Gapsted, Valley Rovers, Myrtleford Wanderers, Beechworth Stars, Whorouly Rovers, Porepunkah and Harrietville-Wandiligong between 1933 and 1939.

 

Myrtleford

Myrtleford is a town of 3000 people and one with a distinct southern European flavour. One in seven of its citizens are of Italian descent. Visitors in May can experience the La Fiera Festival for a celebration of the town’s Italian immigrant culture. After collecting our lunch supplies we push up into the hills on the northern side of the Ovens. Our stage 7 destination is Beechworth, but treats lay along the way. We stop at two small rural communities, one on the road to Yackandandah – the other on the Beechworth Road, in between we picnic at a lookout with a spectacular view.

 

The O&K and the O&M

Before departing Myrtleford it is time to examine the historical connections and geographical overlap between the Ovens and King League and the Ovens and Murray League. Myrtleford is of course a case in point, having belonged to both leagues. But the Saints are not the only club to have done so. Wangaratta Rovers joined the O&M from the O&K in the same year – 1950.

 

If we go further back we find several other former O&K clubs that had an affiliation at one time with the O&M. The towns of Beechworth, Wangaratta, Eldorado, Chiltern and Rutherglen have all had historical affiliations with the two leagues. Beechworth joined the O&KFA in 1905 from the O&MFA and switched several times between the two leagues after that. Similarly, Wangaratta joined the O&KFA in 1903 from the O&MFA and also alternated its affiliation between the leagues during the next 40 years. Chiltern also came to the O&KFA after being an O&MFA club. Eldorado was one of the six foundation members of the O&MFA in 1893, participating for just one season before folding, but re-emerged to join the O&KFA in 1906. Rutherglen, another foundation member of the O&MFA, played in the league until 1979 when it merged with Corowa. A Rutherglen club entered a team in the O&KFL in 1992 before departing for the Tallangatta and District League in 2004.

 

Map showing towns with team(s) currently in the O&MFNL (in gold) and the O&KFNL (in blue)

(Google maps)

 

As the map shows, the Ovens and Murray League territory straddles the Murray River, but extends south to a power base at Wangaratta and to Myrtleford. For many years its territory extended even further south – to Benalla. The Ovens and King League, as the name suggests, occupies the Ovens and King River valleys, but currently extends westwards to Goorambat and Benalla and southwards as far as Bonnie Doon.

 

The Ovens and Murray FNL is a Major Country League whereas the Ovens and King FNL is a District Country League. Both leagues belong to the North East Border region of AFL Victoria.

 

Mudgegonga

The area around Mudgegonga has an indigenous history with a significant rock art site featuring over 400 wall paintings and stencils. The overhang cave walls contain the only painting of the Potoroo species in Victoria. Together with other artefacts the site provides evidence of human occupation of North East Victoria for at least 3500 years.  

 

Mudgegonga has a rich blend of Italian, Irish and Scottish heritage. Following on from the squatters, the first Italian migrants came to the Ovens Valley during the gold rushes of the 1850s. Later, in the 1870s, a group of northern Italian gold miners took up significant land holdings in the Mudgegonga and Barwidgee areas where they established tobacco farms, dairy farms and orchards. 

 

In 2015 a Community Quilt Project resulted in the construction of a quilt representing past and present families in the Mudgegonga district. The 59 blocks of the quilt depict, among others: tobacco growing by the Marotta family at Barwidgee; soldier settler dairy farmers at Mudgegonga; the Piazza family’s farm with its long history of tobacco, hops, dairying, citrus and grape growing; Irish and Scottish settlers in the district; and views of Mount Buffalo. A recurrent theme of the quilt is the devastating impact of the Black Saturday fires of 2009 when two lives and seventeen properties were lost. 

 

Mudgegonga first played football as far back as 1895. They participated in the Ovens Association prior to World War I and later competed in a local association alongside teams from Stanley, East Whorouly and Yackandandah. In 1939 the blue and gold colours of Mudgegonga were prominent, with the club winning the Yackandandah and District Association premiership. In 1940 and 1946-48 the club continued to participate in the Yackandandah League before joining the Myrtleford-Bright Football League in 1949. In 1950 Mudgegonga did not field a team, but returned in 1951 when Harrietville withdrew.

 

 

Lunch stop

 

The view looking south from Murmungee Lookout

(pic: author)

 

This is the place to spread out our Italian-inspired lunch in the early winter sunshine at Murmungee Lookout. The panoramic views across the Ovens Valley, to Mount Buffalo and Mount Bogong are spectacular. On the menu we have spicy homemade salami, sun dried tomatoes, local cheeses, olives, Italian breads and, of course, red wine. The wine matches the setting, the food and the mood. Both have their roots in Italian viticulture. Sample a local Aglianico and the interestingly-named Schioppettino. Shiraz and Cabernet, et al, can wait until we reach Milawa in episode 9.

 

Stanley

After our delicious diversion in the Stanley State Forest at Murmungee Lookout, we return to the bitumen via Six Mile Road and pedal to the delightful village of Stanley. Along the way we will stop at some farm gates to pick up a basketful of apples and nuts for which Stanley is renowned. For me, visits to Stanley in the 1960s were associated with the annual New Years Day Picnic Sports held at the Stanley Recreation Reserve. 

 

Picnic games were customarily held on New Years Day in many Australian country towns a little over a century ago to raise money for the many private patriotic funds set up to assist soldiers and their families during and after World War I. Those funds filled an important gap during the War by providing the troops with warm clothing and comforts packages, by assisting the rehabilitation of returned soldiers and by raising relief funds for civilian wartime victims in Allied Europe. After the war, funds were used for the erection of memorials and clubrooms, the care and maintenance of war graves in Australia and to assist returned soldiers.

 

The picnic sports days featured races for adults and children, jumping, wood chopping, cycling, dancing and a series of interesting and amusing novelty events. Often a concert was performed by the town band or a picture show was screened in the evening. The picnic days, such as the one held annually on New Years Day at Stanley commenced in the 1870’s and endured through wars, depressions and better times.

 

Stanley Recreation Reserve

(pic: author)

 

One of the first football clubs in North East Victoria was formed at Beechworth in 1861, however there is no evidence of football being played there until 1876, one year before the formation of the Victorian Football Association. Small settlements in the Beechworth area, such as Hurdle Flat and Stanley, soon followed suit in forming football clubs to play inter-town matches. 

 

Stanley played its first matches against Hurdle Flat (1886), Oxley (1887), Yackandandah and Hillsborough (1888). In the mid 1890s Stanley competed in the Isaacs Challenge Cup competition against Wooragee, Myrtleford, Porepunkah, Bright and Wandiligong. Soon after, Stanley played in the Ovens Association against Mudgegonga, East Whorouly and Yackandandah in the years leading up to World War I. Between the wars Stanley mostly played friendly matches against teams from the district including Mudgegonga, Tannery (Beechworth) and Tarrawingee. In 1947 Stanley was admitted to the Yackandandah and District League but could not field a team and was forced to fold.

 

Beechworth

If I posed the question – who has been to Beechworth? – most hands in the room would shoot up. And people would quickly think of autumn foliage, a bakery, a brewery, a prison and verandah-fronted buildings, like the hotel pictured below.

 

Tanswell’s Commercial Hotel Beechworth

(pic: author)

 

If we could go back in time, our senses might pick up the sounds of raucous laughter in a pub backed by loud piano playing, the clunk-close of the gaol gates heralding the arrival of a new inmate, the clip-clop of horse hooves on bluestone, the whistle of a steam train about to depart the platform and the street-whisper that the Kelly Gang are about.

 

Returning to today, what about the asylum? Some will have taken the time to walk, ride or drive the short distance up the hill to experience the Beechworth Asylum, or more commonly, the Beechworth Home for the Insane and Mayday Hills Mental Hospital. The institution was one of the largest mental asylums in Victoria and at the peak of its operation had over 1200 patients. The Italianate-style building, located amid spacious grounds, would have had the outward appearance of serenity. Inside it might have been a very different story. It is rumoured that at one point in the asylum’s 128 year history it took just two signatures to be admitted but eight to be discharged!

 

After the facility was closed in 1995 it was initially owned by La Trobe University as a hospitality training school and conference venue. Today the heritage listed site is in local hands and is used by tourism and arts-based businesses.

 

Next episode

At the start of episode 8, before we leave Beechworth to return to the Ovens Valley, we will cycle to Baarmutha Park, the long term home of the Beechworth Football Club where we will reminisce about the glory days of the Bombers and the Bushrangers.

 

 

More from Peter Clark can be read Here.

 

 

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