Bus Tours
All bus tours require bookings. Call 03 5832 9730 to make a booking.
On Friday 22 March, bus tours will depart at the listed time from the bus stops on Nixon St at the north end of the Council buildings. On Saturday 23 March, bus tours will depart at the listed time from outside the Shepparton Library at 41-43 Marungi Street, Shepparton. There is ample car parking available in this area.
Mansion Tour
Tours Fri and Sat. Depart 10am, return approx 12.30pm.
Our region’s signature mansion, created in 1877 by one of the four Winter brothers, northern Victoria’s answer to the squatters of the Western District. James Winter became the local squire, but hardly lived in the Italianate mansion, dying outside London on a visit in 1885.
Home to German officer POWs in WW2. Now part of HM Prison Dhurringile.
Listed on the Victorian Heritage Register.
Our region’s signature mansion, created in 1877 by one of the four Winter brothers, northern Victoria’s answer to the squatters of the Western District. James Winter became the local squire, but hardly lived in the Italianate mansion, dying outside London on a visit in 1885. Home to German officer POWs in WW2. Now part of HM Prison Dhurringile. Listed on the Victorian Heritage Register.
Gateway to the GV Tour
Tours Fri and Sat. Depart 10am, return approx 4pm.
Time is allowed for lunch in Murchison, or bring your own. The Murchison Heritage Centre and Christ Church will be open.
A privileged visit to an archetypal red brick country church cleverly converted into a comfortable private dwelling. The church once served the staunchly Catholic population of the now vanished Moorilim. Complemented by a picturesque garden.
‘The finest example of traditional milling technology in working order in its original setting’ in Victoria, and probably Australia. The three-storey brick mill of 1865 and later granary extension, the flanking two-storey brick residence, the evocative collection of farm buildings, and the peppercorn- and pine tree-lined drive from the gatehouse comprise an unforgettable heritage site. Listed on the Victorian Heritage Register.
Tally Tour
Tour departs 12.30pm, returns approx 3pm.
See the slab hut of early squatter Sherbourne Sheppard (after whom Shepparton is named), a small private graveyard, and wander around the exterior of Hamilton Coldwell’s 1906 homestead, designed by well-known local architect, John Augustus Kenny Clarke.
This proud little Memorial hall, topped by its trophy WW1 German trench mortar, was opened by Acting Prime Minister Dr Earle Page on 9 June 1924. At £2500, it cost the small community £1000 more than Shepparton’s famous statue. See the RSL ‘dugout’.
Dookie and Nearby Tour
Tour departs Sat 10am, returns approx 4pm.
Time is allowed for lunch in Dookie, or bring your own.
A rare opportunity to see one of the municipality’s few squatter-built homesteads, the evocative first stage erected by Humphrey Grattan in the early 1860s. The wonderful stable/coach house is suffering the ravages of time and its vernacular construction.
Walk around the exterior of this impressive (and impressively sited) two-storey house built in 1886 as the country residence for North Melbourne MLA John Curtain, who had taken over the Chateau Dookie Vineyard when other major shareholders withdrew. Meticulously restored.
Another small, red brick country church, made less routine by its later timber-framed entry porch, St Luke’s was constructed in 1903 by local builders Alexander and Torgrimson. View the recent Weeping Window Poppy Tribute.
Mosques and Temple Tour
NOTE VARIATION OF DATE: THIS TOUR TAKES PLACE ON THURSDAY 21 MARCH. Tour departs Thursday 10am, returns approx 4pm.
On this full day tour, donated by the Ethnic Council of Shepparton and District, you will visit the area’s four mosques and the Sikh temple. Lunch will be provided. Headcovering is required for women, and for men at the Temple. This tour, conducted irregularly by the Ethnic Council, is very popular, so book early.
This was the first mosque built in Shepparton, Albanians having been established in this area since the 1920s. The first stone was laid in 1956 by Myrteza Adem and R Sherif Islam, with the building opening in 1960.
The local Afghani population, who mainly arrived in this area from 2005 when many of the men came to pick fruit, raised in excess of $1 million for this mosque and engaged a builder to develop the project, which commenced in mid-2013.
The Imam Kadhim Mosque was developed in 2002 and has undergone extensive modification to meet the community’s needs. Iraqis have relocated to this region from other areas within Australia to pursue work opportunities and/or to join family or friends.
The Turkish community began to establish itself in Shepparton from the 1970s. It built the Turkish Islamic Cultural Centre, with its characteristic minaret, in 1985; it is the community’s primary location for religious, social and cultural gatherings.
Sikhs started settling in the Goulburn Valley in the 1970s, attracted by the availability of work on the orchards. The temple or gurduara was opened in 1980; the worship place is on the first level, with a community service hall on the ground floor.
Early 20th Century Architecture Tour
Tour departs Fri 9.30am, returns approx 4pm.
Time is allowed for lunch in Shepparton, or bring your own.
Early 20th century architecture in the Shepparton area is diverse, and the extent and range of buildings demonstrate that this period represents a coming of age for the region. A number of buildings from this time were designed by Melbourne architects, and the sophistication of their designs is of note. The smaller Bungalows also offer distinction in their own right.
Join Deborah Kemp, architect and heritage professional, on a tour of early 20th Century buildings.
Irrigation Tour
Tour departs Fri 9.30am, returns approx 4pm.
Time is allowed for lunch in Murchison, or bring your own. The Murchison Heritage Centre and Christ Church will be open.
Tour includes rough terrain: wear closed, suitable footwear.
Just outside Greater Shepparton, but vital. The first major diversion structure built for irrigation in Australia and seen as a ground-breaking ‘national’ scheme, it raises the river level so that water can be diverted to irrigation in the GV.
Only the handrail of this impressive wooden structure, Flume No 4, is visible. It was constructed to carry the new National Channel across a natural drainage depression south of Murchison en route from the Weir to the Waranga Basin storage.
The 1885 pump was the solution of the local water authority, the United Echuca and Waranga Waterworks Trust, to the pent-up local demand for irrigation to fill its channels while a weir was still being debated. Archaeological site only.
A rarely-seen section of the Cattanach Canal (1957) cut through a rise just before the Canal enters the Waranga Basin. Here the depth of cut is the greatest on the Canal, up to 19m, resulting in impressive low cliff-like walls.
In The West Tour
Tour departs Fri 10am, returns approx 4pm.
Time is allowed for lunch in Tatura, or bring your own.
Typical of the first buildings of local selectors in the 1870s, this rare survivor was relocated to the current site in numbered pieces by the Starritt family. It is said that Ned Kelly slept a night here during his aunt’s earlier ownership of the building!
A gracious Inter-War Bungalow built in 1921 for local community leader, businessman and farmer James Watson Wilson, previously of Kelvin Grove, by prolific Tatura builder Alexander Miles. See the old two-bail dairy.
The strongly Methodist community of Cooma built this picturesque church in 1926 as a memorial to its war dead; six lovely stained glass windows honour district pioneers. The very rare Rechabite Hall, predating the church, reflects local adherence to temperance beliefs.
A typical small, red brick country church, here with most of the original interior fittings still intact. Designed by prolific Catholic architect AA Fritsch, St Sebastian’s opened in 1903, construction costs bequeathed by Merrigum’s first publican, John S Smith.
Heritage Churches of Shepparton Tour
Tour departs Sat 10am, returns approx 4pm.
Time is allowed for lunch in Shepparton, or bring your own.
Designed by prominent local architect JAK Clarke in 1900, St Brendan’s was renovated and enlarged to the design of high profile and prolific Catholic architect AA Fritsch in 1923-24, with later alterations and additions.
Shepparton’s second Catholic parish erected this distinctive futuristic church, by Triesteborn architect Ermin Smrekar, in 1970. It catered to the influx of Italian migrants as Shepparton expanded. The spaciousness of the interior is striking.
Louis Williams, a renowned church architect, designed this 1926 church with his particular twentieth century adaptation of Gothic and his usual emphasis on quality and craftsmanship. Note the beautiful features of the interior.
The centre of Presbyterianism in Shepparton until denominational union in 1977, Scots’ Church was built in stages from 1888, with the signature bell tower by prominent Melbourne architects John and Phyllis Murphy added in 1964-5.
One of only a handful of churches of this faith in regional Victoria, St George’s, with its numerous icons, was constructed in 1965 by the long-established local Greek Orthodox community, many from the area of Florina.