Words By Matt NM, and Photos By Chris D, John M, Matt G, and Paul H.
The day out in Geelong started at the Mill Markets for breakfast and coffee at the Pickers Union car park. We joined up with the caffeine and gasoline event at the Mill Markets for the first few hours of the day where the car-park was full of cars to admire. There were a few classics and a few modern cars making for a very good variety of vehicles to see.
For lunchtime, we drove down to Queenscliff for Fish and Chips, following the backroads of Geelong and seeing the beautiful countryside. The Fish and Chips shop known as “The Original Queenscliff Fish and Chips” is said to be one of the best Fish and Chips shops throughout the surf coast. We ate in the park just around Queenscliff beach, where the sun was shining and the mosquitoes were abundant. During our lunch break, we all made a mad dash back to the Queenscliff shopping strip to retrieve our cars and move them one block down the street due to the parking restrictions which gave us all a good laugh..
Then in a convoy of cars, we made our way to the Geelong Showgrounds to look at the vintage machinery where Chris Q and Graham T gave a tour of all the steam engines. A lot of the steam engines in the shed had traveled all over Australia and finally made it to the Geelong Showgrounds for their retirement where they remain in working condition due to the lovely vintage machinery club. All the members that volunteer their time at the club share a passion for restoring the equipment and have put in a lot of hard work into the steam engines. One of the engines used to power Geelong and provided the city with the power to operate the trams that once ran up and down Main Street.
We were all a bit hungry after the big day out so we finished off the Geelong Showgrounds with a tea break and headed into Geelong for dinner on the waterfront. With us all settled down at the wharf shed cafe for dinner we gathered around and had a lovely talk and enjoyed our meals before heading to see the light-up of the Christmas tree.
Geelong hosts Christmas every year with a big light-up Christmas tree and fireworks; however, over the last few years due to COVID, this meant that unfortunately there wasn’t a big display on as usual. However this year Geelong City Council put on one of the biggest shows yet seen due to the lapse of the previous years. They pulled the tree into the bay the day before and hooked it up ready to go. It was time and the crowd was counting down for the tree to be lit up. A little girl was the winner of the competition to light the tree and she pulled the switch lighting up the tree and setting the fireworks in motion. The display went along with music and the whole crowd was singing Christmas Carols and dancing.
Following the Fireworks, we were guided to a lovely Ice Cream store, where we all had a Gelato style icecream in delicious flavors to finish the day overall. Those of us from Melbourne then departed back home with inclement weather threatening, from what had been a fantastic day out.
Geelong is often bypassed by travelers on the way to the Great Ocean Road and other tourist attractions, but Geelong has more than enough intrinsic beauty and natural attractions to satisfy the most ardent tourist.
Many thanks to Chris Q and the events team for organizing and running the event, on what turned out to be a very enjoyable and spectacular day.
