LIVING HISTORY IN THE in the High Country

The Victorian High Country is famed for its majestic mountains, excellent horse riding and ski season, as well as magnificent state and national parks.

The summer months are just splendid for exploring the old cattle trails and cattlemen’s huts in the reserves on foot or horseback, by 4WD or on a mountain bike.

Towns like Mansfield, Yackandandah, Mount Beauty and Wangaratta all offer glimpses, through architecture and art, into the colourful pioneering years of this region.

At Glenrowan, you get the chance to visit the siege site where Ned Kelly was captured and explore the museum for more insight into the life and times of Australia’s most famous criminal. Also be sure to visit the Beechworth courthouse, where he was committed in 1880 to stand trial in Melbourne prior to his sentencing to death by hanging. He spent two years in the Beechworth Gaol.

Luxury accommodation & cottages in High Country/Snowfields

You can visit many of Ned’s former haunts by following the Golden Mile walking trail, with its many warm sandstone historic buildings from the colonial era. The Beechworth Visitor Information Centre has everything you need to make the most of your time in the town.

At Mansfield, you can visit the graves of the three policemen, Sergeant Kennedy and Constables Scanlon and Lonigan, who were killed by the Kelly Gang.

The Wangaratta Festival of Jazz is an annual festival in early November, some two and a half hours north-east of Melbourne. Since inception in 1990, the jazz and blues festival has grown to include 90 events and over 350 national and international artists performing each year. While you’re there, the Wangaratta Gallery offers an ever-changing and stimulating visual arts program.

Music lovers shouldn’t miss the Mount Beauty Music Muster, which happens in the last weekend of April 2007.