Mount Macedon and Environs

Mount Macedon lies about 60 km north of Melbourne and rises, according to Wikipedia, to 1.001 metres (3,284'). At the top, there are numerous aerials and a weather radar, but there's also a giant memorial to those who died in World War I:

More importantly from my point of view, it's where I've been staying for the last three weeks:

The back garden goes on for ever and is home to an enormous vegetable patch, an orchard and soft fruit beds. I have eaten fresh produce most days since I got here, even in the middle of winter. Here are the intrepid gardeners inspecting the crop:

Of course, these two are just the caretakers of the property. The real boss here is this little ball of fur:

Just up the road from the house is Mount Macedon Uniting Church:

Most of the church dates from 1983 – the year of the Ash Wednesday fire, which destroyed all but the stone walls of this church, and completely burnt out the other churches in the area, the school and 400 homes. 7 people died in the fire.

All of which goes, I suppose, some way to explaining this notice in the display board outside:

The cross to the right of the path was made from the roof supports from the old building. The congregation wasn't huge, but they were very friendly and welcoming and cake was provided to go with the after-service tea, which is always a good thing!

A few kilometres to the south of Mount Macedon, I kept seeing signs on the highway directing traffic to “Organ Pipes National Park” and I decided one day that it was time to find out what it was all about. Well, this is what it's all about:

This area was once covered in lava flowing from ancient volcanoes. The lava filled in old river valleys and created a vast rocky plain. As the lava cooled, it created these hexagonal basalt columns which were later exposed when new rivers carved new valleys which cut across an old one. The columns were created by the same sort of process that created the Giant's Causeway in Northern Ireland or Fingal's Cave in Scotland, but the erosion there was by the sea. This area also has it's tessellated pavement which isn't quite in the Giant's Causeway league, but it's good in its own way.

Rather more impressive is the so-called “Rosette Rock”. I'm not sure what forces happened to bend the basalt columns like this, but the result is well worth a look:

On my way back to the car, I came across this little chap quietly minding his own business. The picture's not great but I didn't want to scare him by getting too close.

A little to the north of Mt. Macedon is the famous Hanging Rock. I was aware of the existence of the rock but had no idea I was staying about 40 minutes away from it. Despite the bright weather further south, by the time I got up to Hanging Rock, it was very foggy, but it lent the rocks a certain atmospheric quality:

This is the actual “hanging rock”:

I'm guessing the picnic took place a little further up the hill. Perhaps here:

Who knows? And who knows how much truth is in the story anyway?

Just after passing the hanging rock itself, I came across this plaque fixed to the rock. It's hard not to pause and think for a moment when you see this:

The rock is surrounded by forest which ought to be good for koalas, but wasn't. The tea room at the bottom did a lovely line in scones though, which was some consolation.