Western Victoria

27 August - Dartmoor, Victoria

Bet you’ve never heard of Tantanoola? We hadn’t. Now we’ll never forget it.

Tantanoola is outstanding for a number of reasons, not the least of which is the enormous wind farm that lines the hills just outside the town (approx. 100 wind turbines). This is the biggest wind farm in the Southern Hemisphere and one of the biggest single farms we have seen anywhere - and we have seen a few. We are big fans of wind farms. Not only do they make great environmental sense, but they can also be quite spectacular, particularly on the scale of Tantanoola.

Perhaps the least memorable fact about this small South Australian town, situated 40kms North West of Mt Gambier, is the famous (?) stuffed tiger in the town’s pub. We have to admit that the stuffed tiger warranted only a drive-by. It was far too early in the day for a beer.

Most memorable of Tantanoola’s attractions however, is the Kimberley-Clark factory, actually located at nearby Snuggery. (And, no, we didn’t make the name up). For those unfamiliar with the product line of Kimberley-Clark, they make household tissue products. Yep. That’s toilet paper and tissues. In fact the bulk of Australia’s ’tissue products’ roll out of the Tantanoola factory. We will never use a ‘tissue product’ again without remembering good old Tantanoola.

It was a memorable day all round! Earlier on, we were astounded by Larry the Lobster at Kingston SE (not sure what the SE means?). Move aside Big Prawn and Big Mullet, this is the king of big sea creatures.

Our free camping site tonight is courtesy of the good folks of the tiny Victorian village of Dartmoor, just a few kms from the South Australian Border. We pulled up under an avenue of aged Atlantic Cedar trees. We only know this because we took a wander up to the main street for a look about and were enthralled by the timber sculptures that were everywhere we looked in this very small settlement. Turns out that the Atlantic Cedars were planted as a memorial to the men and women from the district who served in the First World War. By the early 1990s, many of the trees, planted in 1918, were in poor condition. The decision was made to lop those that were most endangered and have a chainsaw artist carve memorial sculptures from the trunks. The result is an interesting avenue of sculptures depicting various military themes. We aren’t sure if the artist’s commission included the additional plethora of carvings that adorn various parts of the village or whether he just couldn’t turn his saw off, but there are carved nursery rhyme themes and native animals everywhere you look.