Port Fairy & Portland, Victoria
A few weeks ago I had an outing to Port Fairy and Portland with the folks. After a 38 degree day the day before, the weather dropped to a maximum of 21 degrees, grey and drizzly. It must be something about my travels that turns the weather dreary! Port Fairy is a touristy seaside town with a couple of pretty good bakeries and some interesting stores. Before we partook some good food at the bakeries, we headed to Griffiths Island. The island is known for its large breeding colony of short-tailed shearwaters, locally known as 'muttonbirds’. The I AM PORT FAIRY website has some interesting details on the island, including that adult shearwaters arrive in late September from the Aleutian Islands near Alaska and leave the island mid-April leaving their young behind. Apparently at dusk the shearwaters “return in swarms to their nests to feed their chicks after a day fishing out to sea”. Unfortunately I visited in the right month but the wrong time of day, so I missed out on this spectacle. However, in lieu of the shearwaters, I spied a couple of little pied cormorants, one perching on a rock and another ducking and diving in amongst the reeds in the water. Not much further along and I spotted what I think was a hoary-headed grebe (non-breeding as it didn’t have strong markings on its head).
Little Pied Cormorant
Hoary-Headed Grebe
Past the water and perching in one of the Norfolk Island pines was a raven that looked to be singing into the wind, despite getting its feathers ruffled. Here is a watercolour and ink artwork of mine inspired by the raven, with the different process steps. The first is a pencil drawing direct onto watercolour paper, followed by a black watercolour underlay and then a final overlay using a fine ink pen.
Singing Raven Watercolour & Ink, 23x31cm
We had an early lunch at The Village Bakehouse which had a great selection of savoury and sweet treats. I can never resist a pie (fully encrusted with pastry), so got a steak and mushroom, together with an iced apple slice. The cute little sparrows were hopping around the table. On a previous visit to Port Fairy we had eaten at Cobb’s Bakery which was also fab and also had the little sparrows hovering. I delight in watching little sparrows, so I had taken some footage at that time. Sparrows aren’t native to Australia but were introduced from Britain in the late 1800s and are now considered a pest. You can read more at Birds in Backyards.
Port Fairy also boasts some beautiful pelican murals by well known local artist Jimmi Buscombe (local legend). You can read more about these on his website. I really recommend scrolling down further on his public art page to watch the hilarious video about “Gutsy” the wombat mural. I couldn’t stop laughing when I watched this - the story is so good!
Jimmy Buscombe Pelicans at Port Fairy
From Port Fairy we travelled about an hour to Portland. Sitting at the park overlooking the port we could see massive piles of timber and wood chips ready for loading onto the ships. The park had a mosaic shell, made by Annette Taylor and the community, that you could comfortably sit in and watch the view. It was tiled with varying mosaics both inside and out. I loved the stars especially. Off to the right and behind the park was a side road with a lovely long mural ‘Aquoluminantiquitous’ by Mitch Parker and the community. Below are close up photos I took of both, showing only a small sections of these works.
‘Aquoluminantiquitous’ by Mitch Parker and the community
Mosaic Shell by Annette Taylor and the community
Lastly on the list was the Portland Botanic Gardens and wow was there a stunning display of all kinds of different dahlias that you could see from the road. We went in to take a closer look at these. My particular favourite was the “Tartan” variety. I also adored the Glenmarc Cassie (video below), which was amongst the other dahlias but I am not actually sure it is a dahlia. Any gardening experts out there, I would love to hear from you on this.