MEANDERING SHORES
AN EAGLE FLIES LANGUID CIRCLES above the Mitchell River valley and seems unperturbed by an audience in this somewhat under-appreciated corner of the country. Flanked by the Great Dividing Range and Bass Strait, the coast of East Gippsland is a bucolic landscape of paddocks dotted with sheep, cows and the occasional emu, rustic colonial cottages and sheds, national parks, Indigenous history, river valleys, vast lakes and uninhabited beaches. Like the eagle overhead, the area deserves the attention it’s garnering.
My husband and I look out from a prime spot on the sturdy deck of Lightfoot & Sons winery and cellar door, perched on solid tables and benches made from the red gum posts of the old Wuk Wuk Bridge. A tractor putts between chequerboard paddocks, grapevines wrap their spindly rows around the side of the hill and irrigation systems spray water high into the air.
As we quaff Lightfoot’s prize-winning wines and nibble on local cheeses, we decide it’s the perfect place to begin a tour of Victoria’s south-east coast and its series of history-laden, pretty villages.
A tractor putts between chequerboard
