The Long and Winding Ride: Episode 13 – Chiltern to Goorambat: Like a bat out of hell

The Long and Winding Ride

 

 

Episode 13 Chiltern to Goorambat: Like a Bat out of Hell

 

 

Stage 13 Chiltern to Goorambat via the Warby Ranges

 

Episode 13 is the longest stage of our long and winding ride. Two and a half hours of pedalling, a break for lunch in the Warby Ranges followed by another two and half hours or so on the road in the afternoon. It is tempting to take off from Chiltern ‘like a bat out of hell’. The terrain is mostly quite subdued, so there is no need for too much haste, so long as we arrive before nightfall. The most difficult part of the stage, apart from the length of time in the seat, is navigating all of the turns required, not to get lost and to reach Goorambat before sunset. On the way we stop at a village located beside the Ovens River that had a football club in the Ovens and King FA for only one season – Peechelba – in 1922. 

 

We bid farewell to the Ovens River and push out north west of Wangaratta to a mountain range with a long and varied geological history. The Kelly Gang used the elevation of the Warby Ranges as a perfect vantage point over the surrounding Ovens Valley, and Glenrowan in particular. We will catch up with them once more in the next episode. After a picnic lunch in the Warby-Ovens National Park we visit a long standing family-owned winery at Taminick before heading into the afternoon sun towards Goorambat. There we meet a football club that has been around for over 130 years, although the ‘Bats’ have only been a member of the O&K League for the last decade and a half.

 

Leaving Chiltern behind we start out on the Back Springhurst and Boundary roads until crossing the Ovens River. Here the Ovens is a very different stream to the one we first encountered at Harrietville (Episode 1). There it was a fast flowing babbling brook. Here it is a much wider, deeper and slower river, surrounded by billabongs, that is close to its junction with the mighty Murray. If you are up for it, we could try to catch our lunch – a Yabby or two – using hoop nets in one of the billabongs.

 

After hopping onto the Wangaratta-Yarrawonga bitumen we arrive at Peechelba in a flash. Stories of bushrangers seem to meet us at every turn in this part of the north east. Daniel ‘Mad Dog’ Morgan, a notorious bushranger from the Riverina, met his demise here at Peechelba Station in 1865 when attempting to hold up the homestead’s occupants. After being shot his body was gruesomely dismembered and publicly displayed in Wangaratta.

 

Peechelba competed for just one season (1922) in the Wangaratta FA. Without explanation its application to rejoin the competition in 1923 was denied. Peechelba later joined the Murray Valley North East competition alongside teams from places such as Mulwala, Devenish and Tungamah.

 

With the promise of lunch ahead we make tracks for the nearby Warby Ranges. The Warby’s consist of granite rock exposed by long processes of erosion. The range rises abruptly from the surrounding farmland, providing wonderful views in all directions, especially to the south east where the snow-clad Victorian Alps can be easily discerned on clear winter days. Now part of a national park, the Warby-Ovens NP, the Warby’s are a great place to enjoy a picnic.

 

 

Lunch stop

 

How about a Yabby roll accompanied by an ale procured from the brewery at the Boorhaman pub? If you enjoy prawns, yabbies are are freshwater version well worth a try. It is a feed that must be accompanied by a cold beer or two.

 

North East Victoria has a reputation for producing some of the finest fortified wines in the world. Whether it is the Rutherglen area or vineyards near Glenrowan, luscious dessert wines such as topaque and liqueur muscat are a taste sensation to be savoured. Let’s park the bikes beside the stone wall of a Taminick family cellar, built in 1914 from Warby Ranges granite, and sample a drop or two. Once our purchases are made, we must backtrack a short way before proceeding to Goorambat via Thoona.

 

Thoona

 

At the turn of the century Thoona boasted a butter factory, brickworks, foundry, mechanics’ institute and dramatic and choral societies. The village was named Mokoan until 1886. The Thoona Football Club was formed in 1885, winning premierships in 1906, 1910, 1911 and 1933. The 1933 premiership was awarded to Thoona despite Swanpool winning the grand final. A successful appeal was made by the Thoona club to the league tribunal on the grounds of Swanpool having played a man who resided outside of its permitted radius. These types of appeals were not uncommon in country football and the outcomes often made for strained relationships between clubs and towns that lasted for years.

 

For most of its existence Thoona played in the Benalla and District League (and its forerunner – the Tatong Thoona FA). In that competition Thoona were known as the ‘Maroons’ with a maroon jumper featuring a blue sash. The club merged with Glenrowan in 1961, but that alliance lasted for only two seasons. Thoona stood on its own again in 1963 but folded in 1967.

 

Goorambat

 

On arrival we are welcomed to Goorambat by silo art produced by one of Australia’s top public mural artists, Jimmy Dvate. His art features a Barking Owl, Clydesdale horses and a farming scene on the town’s three silos. After all, this is prime wheat growing and grazing country. No bats though, we have to go to the Goorambat Recreation Reserve to find their cave.

 

Goorambat Recreation Reserve

(Google maps)

 

The history of football at Goorambat is similar to that of many small rural settlements. Starting with challenge matches against neighbouring towns, maturing to form a club, joining a local competition, experiencing periods in recess, enduring premiership droughts and moving to new competitions as they evolved. Known variously as the ‘Grasshoppers’ and the ‘Plough Boys’, the Goorambat FC hit the big time, winning its first premiership in 1935 when competing in the Tatong and Thoona FA. After the War, Goorambat, known then as the ‘Bats’, had success in the Benalla District FL. Goorambat’s mid sixties feat of three successive flags (1963-65), and back-to-back premierships (1978-79), are highlights of their long history.

 

Inevitable premiership droughts test the mettle of footy clubs. The Bats went missing for two decades before flying onto the podium again (in 2001). In 2010 Goorambat joined the Ovens and King Football Netball League when the Benalla League disbanded. Accompanying the change of affiliation was a change in jumper from the traditional green with a gold sash outfit to a silver jumper with a bat logo on the front and green and gold stripes on the shoulders and flanks. 

 

The first six seasons in the O&K saw the Bats in or near the competition’s cellar, but in 2016 they reached the finals for the first time. They went one better the next year, managing to win an elimination final. Since 2017 the Bats have had only two further finals appearances. Their maiden premiership in Ovens and King company remains in waiting.

 

In 2025 the Bats, currently in fifth position on the ladder, look certain to make the finals. The Ovens and King League have a finals system whereby the top six teams qualify. With three rounds to be played, last year’s grand finalists Bright and Greta are clear front runners. But, Milawa, Goorambat, Bonnie Doon and Whorouly won’t be there just to make up the numbers when the whips are cracking. North Wangaratta are also still in with an outside chance of making the final six.

 

In 2014 it was mooted by  AFL Victoria/AFL North East that Goorambat should merge with fellow Ovens and King clubs Tatong and Swanpool. All three clubs were struggling at that time to be competitive in the league. Tatong and Swanpool refused to entertain the amalgamation proposal on the grounds of the distances between the towns and long established club culture. Both clubs were then effectively shut out of the O and K League by AFL North East in a decision which seemed at odds with the recognised value of country footy clubs to their communities.

 

Next episode

In stage 14 we meet head on with the Kelly Gang at Glenrowan on our ride to Oxley.

 

 

More from Peter Clark can be read Here.

 

 

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