After 8 weeks of isolation due to COVID-19, and home schooling we were finally able to venture out as long as we had downloaded the COVIDSafe app and abide by all of the social distancing restrictions.
We drove from Melbourne up to Daylesford which took an 1.5 hour. Along the way, we played car games and our 9 year old Kidsetter told us about how one day he was going to live on a farm, and he imagined all the animals he was going to have on his land. He learnt about horizontal turbine windmills and controlled fire burning along the way.
We arrived at Lake Daylesford and were exceptionally eager to start exploring. Lake Daylesford was formed when the dam wall was built across Wombat Creek above the Central Springs in 1929. The town wanted an ornamental body of water to beautify the scarred creek landscape.
Mining activity stripped the Wombat Creek valley of it’s vegetation and created a damaged landscape. An effort to form a reservoir or lake in the 1890’s persisted until late 1920’s when a dam wall was built across the creek to form the present ornamental lake.
Much of the construction work was by local unemployed men suffering through the financial depression years. Previously, crowds had flocked here for diving demonstrations, swimming competitions, boating regattas and fishing events.
Commencing our exploration from Wombat Flat Carpark we made our way around the lake. We always know our Kidsetter is in his happy place when he can’t help but skip. We have a smile from ear to ear watching this.
We absorbed our new surroundings, making up stories as we ventured. A stunning Autumn’s day noticing minute details such as mushrooms, stunning greenery, rough tree bark, falling autumn leaves, all against the backdrop of the lake’s shimmering water.
Our Kidsetter enjoyed throwing broken sticks into the lake observing the size of the ripple it would create, saying “Watch how these 2 ripples join together and make one”.
Walking around the lake and offshoot tracks we came across a raised log that reached from one side of the creek to the other. Our Kidsetter wanted to climb this, and I knew it would be a stretch for both our Kidsetter and myself watching him embark on this challenge. I could hear my friend’s advice in my ear, ‘What’s the worst that could happen, he’ll fall and get wet and maybe break a wrist.’ Still, I had butterflies in my stomach and knew it could not show as I wanted our Kidsetter to achieve something that was a little beyond him and feel the elation of empowerment and belief in himself. Thankfully, that’s exactly what occurred. Phew !
