North-west of Melbourne you enter what used to be the Central Australian goldfields. In the 1850s, the discovery of gold here sparked one of the biggest gold rushes in history. Ballarat, on the Western Highway, was the site of the famous Eureka Revolt, and it now has a reconstructed old gold town at Sovereign Hill. North of here, on the Calder Highway, is Bendigo, the other great gold-mining centre in the region. Stories of the so-called ‘mountain of gold’ here spread through the world.

Continue along the Western Highway from Ballarat in the direction of Adelaide and on your right you come to The Grampians (Gariwerd), a mountain region of exceptional natural beauty with plenty of excellent walking.

From here to Adelaide the route is of no great interest and it makes sense to drop down to the coast road. This enables you to take in The Coorong, the picturesque Fleurieu Peninsula and the more remote splendours of Kangaroo Island, all covered in The Shipwreck Coast and Kangaroo Island.

You should allow at least three or four days if you want to do justice to all the best places to visit.

TRANSPORT

There are regular buses between all the main towns. But if you want to explore the Grampians, you’ll need some transport of your own.