Loddon Valley Self-Drive Discoveries

Get to know the landscape, produce, creativity and characters of the Loddon Valley via a self-drive tour to some of the region’s highlights. Drop your boat into the Loddon River or throw a line from the bank, watersports are a favourite pastime throughout the region, including at the spectacular Boort lakes.

Visit a two-acre open-air gallery sent within an oasis of ornamental trees and exotic birds, just a short drive from the Boort township at the Piccoli’s Spanner Sculpture Gardens. The head just down the road to discover where Marilyn Lanyon’s family have farmed tomatoes in Boort since the late 1970s at Simply Tomatoes. 

In Wedderburn the Hard Hill Tourist Reserve features a working eucalyptus oil stew pot. Volunteers fire it up for visitors four days a week, from Monday to Thursday, and at other times by appointment, keeping this local tradition from becoming a lost trade. Book ahead for this and other tours to get the most of your visit. Explore original relics from the gold rush, including a gold puddler and stamper battery.  Walk to the top of Hard Hill and see the old gold mine from the diggings days. Meanwhile the gold rush era history is on show at the Coach House Gallery and Museum in the main street of Wedderburn.

Go gold prospecting

What to strike it rich? Prospecting is permitted in Regional Parks, State Forests and other reserves throughout the Loddon Valley, which means there are thousands of hectares of public land to fossick for gold. Walk in the footsteps of the early diggers from the 19th century and you may just strike it lucky. Pick a spot of scenic forest and simply start fossicking. You might not be rich by the end of the day but you will get plenty of fresh air.