Bonnie Doon

Seeing as how I always seem to be writing about Bonnie Doon, where we go to frequently, I thought I might share some information about the place !!!

Bonnie Doon is a small town situated in North East Victoria on the edge of Lake Eildon. It is most well known these days as a holiday/weekend destination for waterskiiers, fisherman and boat enthusiasts.

It has a small population, but in holiday periods the population swells to several times its normal size. There are three caravan/camping parks in and around the town and one Hotel which is situated on the waters edge.

The area of Bonnie Doon was first passed through by white man in 1824 by the explorers Hume and Hovell. It was first settled in 1834 and the township originated in the 1860's. The town was originally called Doon but the name was later changed, in 1891, to Bonnie Doon. The discovery of gold in the area caused a immense growth of the town, and from this emerged a strong farming community. There was once quite a few Hotels and other shops as well as a butter factory.
In 1955 Lake Eildon was enlarged to store more water for irrigation and unfortunately Bonnie Doon township was going to be submerged. The town relocated nearby further up a hill where it currently stands today. This involved moving the highway and railway and the building of new bridges. Many residents moved elsewhere rather than rebuild in Bonnie Doon.

After the enlargement of the lake, the potential for tourism became apparent and a caravan park was built. Then boat ramps, picnic areas, hotels and motels were built to cater for waterskiers.

Today the Bonnie Doon area contains 3 caravan/camping grounds, 3 Motels, 1 Hotel, numerous housing estates dotted around the lake and is growing in popularity all the time.

Map of Victoria ... Bonnie Doon is to the left of the words High Country, sort of underneath Benalla !!

Map of Australia ... Victoria is the Southern-most state on mainland Australia ... Tasmania, however, is further south, though not connected to the mainland.

The caravan / holiday park where we always go, and have been going since early 1996 when we bought our caravan there, is about 9km out of Bonnie Doon, on the shores of Lake Eildon (well, when there is water there, anyway !!). For those of you who were wondering what I am always talking about when I say we go to our caravan at Bonnie Doon, here are some pictures. This one is from the front of our site ... it is actually a big, old (1970s era) caravan, with an aluminium annexe (on a concrete slab) connected to it. It is all roofed over, and we have added a big decking area out front.

This one is looking from the back ... you can actually see the old caravan there !!

Inside the caravan ... looking from the front towards the back ... our bedroom !! (The kitchen is to the right of the photo !!)

Inside the caravan again, looking from the bedroom to the front.

Looking from the stairs of the caravan, into the annexe, out the front door !!

Looking from the front door, across the lounge, at the caravan door (Hubby lined the outer caravan wall with pine panelling, so the caravan cannot be seen from inside the annexe ... looks really cosy !). We have stacks of photos on the wells. The wall on the right backs onto the bathroom, and there is a hallway down toward the right, along the caravan wall.

A peek into our bathroom (the loo is to the left, beside the vanity unit, behind the shower).

Chicky's bedroom, and storage space (always a mess !!) ... there is a double bed, and above a single, with a couple spare mattresses, also.

So there you go. That's our home away from home at Bonnie Doon. (Apologies for some of the photos ... Blogger decided to cut off the bottoms of them ... don't know why !!)

We had a wonderful weekend up there, this last weekend. The park was very quiet, but we had a productive weekend, doing some long overdue spring cleaning. It's incredible the amount of stuff that can be accumulated over the years. I had a huge cleanout of my pantry ... gosh, the amount of food that was past it's use-by date ... so wasteful !! So, we are now all ready to take up more junk at Christmas, to spend a wonderful couple of weeks of well-earned R&R.

Now, back to the typing, and the business of Christmas shopping !!

Have a great week all, and I hope to be by to visit within the next day or so.

Take care,

MEOW