WARRNAMBOOL, VIC TRAVEL
I wasn't expecting to suddenly find myself face to face with a $4 million peacock but there it is, standing proudly atop a rock, beak raised and brilliant plumage draping to the ground.
Okay, it's not an actual living bird but a 1.44-metre-high work of Majolica glazed earthenware, created by England's famous Minton Potteries in the 1870s and now standing pride of place in the museum at Warrnambool's Flagstaff Hill Maritime Village.
“If this bird could talk, what would it tell us?” asks the placard beneath it. Probably a scary tale of how it sailed here aboard the doomed clipper Loch Ard in 1878, destined to appear at the opening of Melbourne's Royal Exhibition Building only to sink in a violent storm that killed all but two of its fellow 54 passengers and crew.
The peacock made it ashore with only a chipped beak and is one of 7000 artefacts scattered across a replica pioneer village that brings to life the 19th century, complete with appropriately costumed villagers. There's everything you'd expect to find in a port town of the day, from ship chandlers and sailmaker'slightkeeper's cottage, moved here brick-by-brick from Middle Island.
