Fort Queenscliff lighthouse in Queenscliff, Victoria, Australia. Image credit: Dans Destinations / Shutterstock.com.

7 Most Peaceful Small Towns In Victoria

The loudest sound in Echuca most mornings is a paddle wheel churning water, and off Logans Beach in Warrnambool, it might be a southern right whale exhaling as she surfaces. Cape Nelson Lighthouse still sweeps its beam across the Southern Ocean near Portland, while a pair of century-old lighthouses guide ships through the heads at Queenscliff. Further inland, the granite tors of Mount Buffalo rise above Bright's Ovens River valley, turning gold every autumn. It doesn't get much more idyllic than that. Here are the seven most peaceful small towns in Victoria.

Castlemaine

Castlemaine grew from gold; the wealth that was mined from the ground in the 1850s built a town that has since become a destination much calmer than its boomtown years. Buda Historic Home and Garden, the 1863 villa of silversmith Ernest Leviny, has 3 acres of dry-climate garden shaped with input from botanist Ferdinand von Mueller. The house is open daily for those who want to walk the grounds. A few minutes away, Castlemaine Botanical Gardens, gazetted in 1860 and among the oldest regional botanic gardens in the state, is home to a lake, mature elms and river red gums under a gorgeous canopy. For a longer walk, Kalimna Park's box-ironbark bushland covers 175 hectares on the town's edge, and the Kalimna Circuit climbs to Kalimna Point for a view over Castlemaine's rooftops and the surrounding hills, passing more than two dozen orchid species along the way.

Kyneton

Around a half-hour drive southeast of Castlemaine, Kyneton features the same bluestone and verandah architecture, with the Campaspe River running straight through the town's center. Kyneton Botanic Gardens, opened in 1858, line the banks of the Campaspe River between the railway station and the town centre. The Campaspe River Walk follows the water almost three kilometres from the gardens down to Piper Street, passing a sculpture park near Quarry Reserve along the way. Piper Street itself runs on bluestone footings from the gold rush era, its cafes and small stores filling restored 1850s buildings.

Echuca

Follow the Campaspe about 140 kilometres north, and it reaches the Murray River at Echuca, a river town whose name comes from an Aboriginal word meaning "meeting of the waters," a nod to its position where the Campaspe and Goulburn rivers both join the Murray. The Historic Port of Echuca preserves the wharves and bond stores from Echuca's years as Australia's largest inland port. Paddle steamers still tie up there. The PS Alexander Arbuthnot, whose construction started in 1916, was the last one built to work the Murray River trade, and now you can experience it on a river cruise at the port. The PS Emmylou heads further upstream on multi-night cruises for anyone with more time to spare. Just north of town, Barmah National Park, together with the Millewa forests across the river in New South Wales, forms the largest river red gum forest anywhere. Its wetlands flood each winter and spring, drawing waterbirds that nest among the trees.

Warrnambool

Warrnambool's calm comes from the magic of the Southern Ocean, where the waves and their inhabitants captivate visitors. Between June and September, southern right whales swim within a hundred metres of Logans Beach to calve, and a viewing platform in the dunes lets visitors watch, free of charge. A short drive out of town, Tower Hill Reserve fills the crater of a volcano that has been dormant for more than 30,000 years. Here, kangaroos, koalas, and emus move through the bush around a chain of crater lakes. Back on the coast, Flagstaff Hill Maritime Village recreates an 1878 port town on the site of the old coastal battery, its heritage buildings and lighthouse open for daily tours. Lake Pertobe's sealed paths loop past the water, with reed beds and waterbirds as the main view.

Portland

About 100 kilometres west along the coast, Portland holds the record as Victoria's first permanent European settlement. Cape Nelson Lighthouse, a 32-metre tower built in 1884, stands within Cape Nelson State Park; tours climb the spiral stair to a 360-degree view over the Southern Ocean and the wind turbines further along the cape. Cape Bridgewater, twenty minutes from town, has a petrified forest, sea cliffs carved into blowholes, and Australia's largest mainland fur seal colony, best seen from the clifftop walking track above the water. In town, Portland Botanic Gardens, established in the 1850's and among the oldest botanic gardens in the state, is home to 300 varieties of roses and 130 varieties of dahlias.

Queenscliff

Queenscliff is situated at the tip of the Bellarine Peninsula, where Port Phillip narrows to a single deep channel. Fort Queenscliff has guarded that channel since the 1860s, and its guided tours cover the tunnels, gun emplacements, and views over the bay that made the fort central to the colony's coastal defence. A pair of lighthouses mark the same stretch of coast: the White Lighthouse and the Black Lighthouse, the latter one of only four black lighthouses left standing anywhere in the world. Away from the fort, Swan Bay's shallow seagrass flats draw wading birds year-round, and the best seat over them is at the Bellarine Railway. Volunteers from the Geelong Steam Preservation Society have run heritage trains on this line since the 1970s, and the Swan Bay Express follows the shoreline toward Drysdale.

Bright

At the opposite end of Victoria, Bright’s crisp alpine air is a refreshing welcome to the state's High Country. The Ovens River runs straight through town with the Canyon Walk following it for 3.5 kilometres past deciduous trees planted by early settlers. Above town, Mount Buffalo National Park's granite plateau is home to the Gorge Heritage Walk and the Gorge Lookout. Here, morning fog often settles into the valley below, giving a summit view of misty clouds among the trees. Ringer Reef Winery, a family-run cellar door six kilometres out at Porepunkah, pours wine on a lawn facing Mount Buffalo and the Buckland Valley.

Seven towns, four regions, and a lot of open, peaceful country between them. Castlemaine and Kyneton share the goldfields bluestone and the Campaspe, which carries the same water north to Echuca. Warrnambool and Portland divide the southwest coast between a volcanic crater and a rose garden older than much of the state. Queenscliff sits at the mouth of Port Phillip, Bright well inland on the Great Alpine Road, and every one of the seven offers a different kind of peace for you to enjoy.

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