A SLICE OF EUROPE IN CENTRAL VICTORIA

uring the 1851 gold rush, Europeans flocked to Victoria’s Daylesford and the neighbouring region of Hepburn Springs. They came in search of rare metal, and stayed – presumably – because it felt like, well, home. They planted grapes, farmed the rich volcanic soil and built stone houses. Italians set up Australia’s first pasta factory, the Swiss introduced bull-boar sausages (equal portions pork and beef, with a liberal dose of spice), and as word spread of the labyrinth of 70-plus mineral springs bubbling through rolling hills and tall timbered forests, by the 1930s