The Long and Winding Ride
A football feast in Victoria’s Ovens and King valleys
Prologue
Welcome to the mountains, alpine valleys and rivers of north-east Victoria. This is Ovens and King country – a place for all seasons and many adventures.
Picture a summer’s day floating down a refreshing stream or paragliding from on high like a soaring eagle. Wait a while for an amber autumn afternoon, kicking up fallen leaves or booting a Sherrin with the kids in a park. Rug up for a game of footy on a dead-of-winter July day with snow capped peaks as a backdrop. Rejoice in the arrival of spring, pleasing your palate at a cellar door, a cafe or a beer garden anywhere you choose in the Ovens and King.
What a great location for a bike ride! The French can have their ‘Le Tour’, the Italians their ‘Giro d’Italia’, the Spaniards their ‘Vuelta a Espana’. We can take a more leisurely ride on our own trails – ‘Murray to Mountains’ style. There will be no peleton to hide in, no breakaways to chase, no green, yellow, white or red polka-dot jerseys to wear – just pedal and enjoy the ride.
The Ovens and King valleys
(Google maps)
In my Footy Almanac series this year we will weave our way on two wheels down the Ovens River valley and venture up into King River country. Aside from the spectacular scenery, epicurean delights and snippets of local history, we will explore the evolution of Australian Football in the region. On our four month-long ride look out for stories of Bogong Moths, Chinese footballers, bushrangers, Italian prisoners of war, tobacco and hop growers, cattlemen, pioneering vignerons, heroic World War II nurses, road builders, gold miners and VFL premiership players, among the many themes.
Enjoy the lunch and dinner suggestions as we pedal our way from one sumptuous siding to the next. Prime your palate for picnic wines and beers that will quench the thirst, match the food and linger long afterwards.
Our signature tune for the cycling adventure is a Beatles classic – The Long and Winding Road. Paul McCartney wrote the song in 1968, inspired by a road disappearing into the distance near his mountain home in Scotland. I’ve tinkered with the title of the song, with apologies to the Beatles. Some of the lyrics have meaning for me – as a frequently returning traveller on that “road”, to that metaphorical “door” in the mountain and valley country of North East Victoria. And, maybe it is a special place for you also.
“The long and winding road
That leads to your door
Will never disappear
I’ve seen that road before
It always leads me here
Lead me to your door”
Cattle grazing and the potential for rich pastures, then the lure of gold, attracted European settlers to the north east. Long before them were the indigenous inhabitants, among them the Pangerang, Taungurung, Dhudhuroa, Waywurru, Gunaikurnai and Jaithmathang people.
The first European settlers were followed by pioneers who saw fortunes in timber, tobacco, grain growing, dairying, vines and hops. More recently it has been tourism providing a stable base for the region’s economy.
We join that people-wave as a bunch of touring epicureans in need of a little exercise, always looking for a footy ground to visit, a cafe for nourishment, a pub for a chance to chat with some locals and a river to sit beside on our longish and winding bike ride. Footy will never be far from our focus as we cycle along rail trails, mountain and valley tracks and quiet country lanes. On our 2025 tour, we will stop and knock on many doors and farm gates.
Australian Football has been played in North Eastern Victoria for more than 160 years. The Ovens and King League has been part of the football landscape since 1903, while a number of district associations, that no longer exist, had a similar starting time. We will trace the history of footy clubs throughout the Ovens and King, finding many lost clubs and a trail of almost forgotten football grounds.
A clutch of famous (and some not so well known) VFL players ignited their football journeys on the grounds of the Ovens and King League (and in the case of Myrtleford and Wangaratta Rovers footballers, since 1950, in the Ovens and Murray League).
Among them we celebrate – two Kekovich brothers, two Abletts, Hodgkin and Crisp (Myrtleford), Nolan (Tarrawingee), Flanigan (Milawa), Hendrie and Jarrott (Moyhu), Montgomery and Steele (Greta), Bussell and Porter (King Valley), Goonan, Wartman and Newton (Whorouly), Norman (Glenrowan), the Lappins (Chiltern) and the Reid brothers (Bright). We will revel in the football careers of ‘The Galloping Gasometer’, “Bluestone’, ‘Slammin Sam’, ‘Big Boy’, ‘Ironman’ and more, as the excursion unfolds.
As your tour guide, I can’t brag of any skill as a bike rider (although I have ridden several of the NE Victorian trails) but I can claim a strong family connection to Bright, Wandiligong, Porepunkah and Mount Buffalo – places at the heart of the Upper Ovens Valley. Allow me to introduce several of my relatives, now long deceased, who lived, worked and played in the Bright – Mount Buffalo area.
One Great Uncle of mine, Fred Chalwell, won the bike race from Bright to Buffalo at the age of 16 in 1907 and followed that up to win the 20 mile Bright to Eurobin race in 1908. He was employed as the foreman and ski instructor at the Mount Buffalo Chalet. His brother Ernie, was a track-maker, horse master, coach driver and tour guide at Mount Buffalo. We will meet them early in the tour.
We start at Harrietville in the upper reaches of the Ovens Valley and end at Cheshunt in the mid-to-upper section of the King Valley. The course of our 16-stage tour is largely predictable, but has a few mysterious twists and turns thrown in.
Many football history sources have helped inform the series, but two deserve special mention: Neil Barter for his history of the Ovens and King League – All Links in the Chain; and Wangaratta’s KB Hill for his On Reflection posts.
In 2025 can we find our El Dorado?
Grab a bike helmet, leave the lycra behind and join the exploration of Ovens and King country on the Footy Almanac every Wednesday during the 2025 football season. Look out for episode 1 on Wednesday 7th May.
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About Peter Clark
is a lifetime Geelong supporter. Hailing from the Riverina, he is now entrenched on the NSW South Coast. His passion for footy was ignited by attending Ovens and Murray League matches in the 1960's with his father. After years of watching, playing and coaching, now it is time for some serious writing about his favourite subjects… footy, especially country footy, and cricket.
Good on ya Pete, looking forward to another great series.
Those players names bring back some memories: Norm Bussell, Mike Porter, Bob Hodgkin, I’ve not heard those names since the 70’s.There are the more modern names like Michael Newton, the Lappins, and the Reids.
The townships like Glenrowan, Whorouly, Tarrawingee, all have watering holes I have frequented. Many hours doing research in the area has been spent and enjoyed.
Peter, I await the first week.
Glen!
Those geographical areas of which you speak are glorious, Peter. And seriously under-rated.
Looking forward to this series!!
Peter, love the map.
I did a lot of two-wheeled touring thru that area, my bikes had internal combustion engines. I remember riding thru Milawa ,the ‘Cheese Town’ a few times and thinking that one day I would stop and buy cheese and watch the local football. But I was only ever there in summer and didn’t have a refrigerated bag.
Pushing hard thru those hills was great fun. Murray Valley Hwy from Tallangatta to Carryong is one of the great motorcycling roads.
You bewdy Peter. Canardly wait.
It is good to have you along for the ride Glen, Smokie, Earl and Swish.
Great start to what is sure to be a rivetting series.
Can’t wait to read about “Farmer” Holmes – I reckon he’s KB’s fave Wang Rovers player.
I’m intrigued to know about the dynamics of the league given its spread across the Ovens and King Valleys…
seems like Bright is is the biggest town in the league?
I’m in Peter. Looking forward to the autumn leaves falling and getting all mushy under rolling tyres & the wafting of woodfired smoke to fire up the lungs as you head off each morning for a new adventure.
Finding our Eldorado, hey Peter? I reckon all I ever found there was an old dredge.
If we come down from the hills,off to the west is Springhurst, an old family town for us. Do they still have a team?
Glen!
Rocket of the Roseville variety,
Benalla (home of All Blacks) is the biggest town – if you regard North Wangaratta as separate from Wang.
Glen,
A stop at Springhurst is on our itinerary – wait for episode 12.
No team now.
Karl, you already have both feet on the pedals and your senses in gear. Welcome!
Love it, Peter. Beautiful country. Outstanding idea.
I’ve wondered about the overlap, differences and club affliations across the Ovens & Murray and the Ovens & King leagues. e.g. Why would, say, Myrtleford, play in the O&M rather than the O&K? Why are there two Wangaratta teams in the O&M?
I do love the road through Milawa. Gret memories of seeking out the flooded Docker Road bridge with my teenage daughters in the (wet) September school holidays of 2021. We’d optimistically set up a tent at Beechworth – and I’d been a Vic & Tassie flood forecaster at the Bureau for 10 years by then. So we had to find the Docker Road bridge. A key forecasting location. We had to see it. And, yes, once we found it, we had to get out of the car, take our shoes off and wade through the King for some photos. Of course we did. Looking forward to your series. Cheers.
David, they are good questions. I will cover the overlap between the O&M and O&K leagues during the series.
In brief; Myrtleford outgrew the O&K, which led to them joining O&M in 1950. Wangaratta became large enough for two O&M clubs after the war, and history shows that it was not too ambitious.
Yes, the road through Milawa is a treat.
Coincidentally, we will look at flooding in the King Valley in episode 16. I look forward to your meteorological input.
Cheers
Thanks Peter,
I still think of All Blacks being in the Benalla & district league…
and of course they share the spoils with the Demons, oops, now Benalla Saints.
Look forward to reading how the current O & K league came together.
Benalla Demons; that’s still how I remember them.
Gary Cowton, Brian Stiles, Mick Silo, Bill Sykes, Vern Drake, Gary Levy, are the names coming to mind.
How 20th century.
Glen!
The Benalla names do come to mind Glen.
To clarify, the Benalla Demons moved to the Goulburn Valley league in 1997 becoming the Benalla Saints. The other Benalla team is the All Blacks, currently in the O&K league.
This sounds fabulous and the perfect setting for an Almanac Friday Lunch sometime! Glorious country.
Great suggestion Kate.
There are many good options for a Friday lunch in the Ovens and King.