Volume 19, Issue 11-12

A 963-kilometre journey that will take about 12 hours by road, the trip from Melbourne to Sydney can seem like an epic journey in itself! For our European friends who travel a few hours to arrive in a new country, the length of the trip might come as some surprise. It’s hard to believe but Australians can drive thousands of kilometres and still be in the same state, let alone another country! When you understand how vast Australia is, these figures start to make some sense.

Australia occupies 5% of the Earth’s surface and is the sixth-largest country after Russia, Canada, China, the US and Brazil. It is one of the least populated countries, with 2.5 persons per square km (in comparison, Britain has 244 persons per sq km).

Distances between Cities
It is a long drive between most Australian cities. So pilgrims will need to be prepared to spend some big chunks of time on the road. The distance from Cairns to Perth, for example, travelling south then west along Highway 1 is about 7200 kilometres, or 4450 miles. The distance between Melbourne and Sydney is 963 kilometres; for those making the return trip, this means more than 1800 kilometres of road travel!

So, to lighten the load a series of ‘super stops’ have been arranged along the Hume Highway to keep our drivers ‘revived’ and to provide places for our pilgrims to stretch their legs and get to know the locals.

One of the exciting aspects about the super stops is that so many of our pilgrims will be able to experience the fabulous Aussie hospitality of some of the towns along the way to Sydney.

The pilgrims travelling by coach will stop at:
•    WANGARATTA
•    HOLBROOK
•    GOULBURN
So, let’s learn a little more about these country towns before we start our bus journey up to Sydney.

Goulburn, New South Wales
Goulburn is also in New South Wales and is the final stop along the highway just 200 kilometres from Sydney and 685 kilometres from Melbourne. Goulburn is known as a farming and grazing area and is famous for its fine wool. The town even has its very own giant merino ram – visit the attraction to find out more about what sheep are all about and climb up to peer out through the eyes of the world’s biggest sheep!

Holbrook, New South Wales
Many Australian towns have been renamed during the course of time, but the southern New South Wales town of Holbrook is a bit of a rarity. The small Hume Highway town has had four names since explorers Hume and Hovell passed through in 1824 and entered the name Friday Mount in their journals.

Later it became known as Ten Mile Creek and then, 20 years on, it became Germanton. And so it remained until local hero Lt Norman Holbrook became the first submarine commander in World War I to receive the Victoria Cross (the highest military award for bravery) and a grateful nation renamed the town in his honour.
A replica of his submarine is mounted in Holbrook Park, where many tourists and travellers stop by to see ‘the big submarine’.

Wangaratta, Victoria
Wangaratta – otherwise known as Wang – is 252km north-west of Melbourne and is the first stop on the trip up the Hume Highway. The rural City of Wangaratta encompasses the Milawa Gourmet Region, King Valley, Glenrowan, El Dorado and Wangaratta.

Famous for its world-class wines, excellent gourmet food and spectacular scenery, the region is also famous in Australian folklore for Ned Kelly. Ned Kelly and the Kelly Gang were a group of outlaws that travelled through the area in the late 1800s robbing and pillaging towns for their riches. This town offers pilgrims a chance to learn more about Australia’s colonial history and bushranger folklore, plus it gives us an insight into how life might have been back in those times. 

Wang, Holbrook and Goulburn look forward to greeting you as a pilgrim on your way to World Youth Day. We hope all pilgrims have the opportunity to get to see some of the sights and get to know some of the locals.
Enjoy your ‘road trip’ to Sydney!