10 Halls and 1000 Hills!

Welcome to Landscape Country – our three connected South Gippsland villages, Loch, Nyora and Poowong – plus quite a few little hamlets and localities. Proudly different, but also depending on and complementing each other. In many ways, we’re like siblings – bonded but different!

We’re also close in distance– the three are just a 9-minute drive from each other, a 9-9-9 minute triangle. Must mean good luck.

We invite you as newer and not so new locals to enjoy our Landscape Country – a distinctive and beautiful landscape of lush green and golden brown rolling hills, unique farmscapes, wildlife and tamelife, historic buildings, pretty villages, quirky landmarks, a benign climate – and real local communities helping each other.

So, pack your camera. Or phone. How about creating your own drive theme that takes you around the immediate villages and features in the region? Or you could explore some of the 10 (ten) lovely old public halls scattered through the region.

Start at the Nyora Hall, up the hill to the Poowong Hall, then further out and up to the halls in North Poowong, East Poowong and Strzelecki. Then back through Korumburra to Bena, Jeetho, Kernot, Woodleigh and Loch. Or reverse the order. Or start from where you live. Or do it slowly over a couple of days. Stop on the way. You’ll get stunning photos, a feeling of community, and a great sense of history. Whichever way you go, you’re likely to find

• Lovely villages and hamlets with fascinating old buildings, churches and halls, each forgiving a thousand stories!

• seasonal and daily changing colours and shadows, enhanced by the hills, sun, clouds and time of day

• undulating and overlapping ridges and valleys folding like crumpled paper, lush and green most of the year, lush and brown in summer

• fascinating skylines; dams, and trees – both native tree pockets and plantings for erosion control, windbreaks or firewood

• cattle – dairy and beef – and their creations of incredible terraces as they graze along the contours of steep hills

• huge rolls of gift-wrapped silage and hay everywhere

• farm houses old and new, some with vantage spots on ridgetops, others in the valleys, closer to water

• rusty and rustic old sheds and barns

• on the way, or a little out of the way, a suspension bridge; Recreation Reserves; an old water tower; a sprawling but retired Butter factory; two cemeteries; antique shops; vineyards; pubs and distilleries; restaurants; bakeries; even a repurposed old Masonic Lodge!

• quirky structures and landmarks

• and at least 1,000 hills – but who’s counting!

You can delve deeper. Create your own itinerary or theme. Or get up close and personal by walking or cycling along the Great Southern RailTrail. It starts at Nyora and access points are Loch, Jeetho or Bena on its 129km journey through Korumburra to Yarram.

The Poowong Historical Group has developed a Historic Trail based around QR codes for each of a number of interesting sites in Poowong - check it out when you visit.

The Loch History Walk Map is another really useful guide and will escort you on a very doable short walk to enjoy the sights of Loch. Look out for Nessie (lake monster or giant earthworm?) while you’re at it.