Campbell Maffett: Return of the good old days (of sorts...)

As a kid we moved around a bit, from farm to farm where dad was farm manager thereby earning us the honour of living in the managers house...while not plush with all comforts, certainly a cut above the houses of jackaroos and other farm hands. These were big farms, the largest called Bannongil at 12,000 acres where the homestead had a front lawn "the size of the MCG", a grass tennis court, expansive gardens with thousands of daffodil flowers and Mt Emu creek running through it. While being just a creek it was at the foot of our house, down a steep bank which sometimes flooded and which was also home to platypus'.

The final place we lived at before I moved out to go to boarding school and then Melbourne for uni was just out of Ballarat, near a town called Learmonth. This time we owned the farm while dad drove to Mawallock each day where he was manager. Our farm was called Mt Bolton as it was perched on the front of the foresaid Mt Bolton, where our 230 or so acres included small sections of bush and from the top of the hill offered amazing 270 degree views of the countryside, taking in Mt Bunninyong beyond Ballarat, to Mt Ercildoune and Lake Burrumbeet and Lake Learmonth.

Mt Bolton was my most favourite place to live because of the beauty of the place and the surrounding hills, roads and tracks along where I did my first real running and bike training at the start of my triathlon career. Our house was itself built from granite rock which meant the walls were about 1m thick and with the hard work we put in, ended up with a fabulous garden around it.

My memories also include countless hours riding my motorbike with our neighbour, Adam, and building an amazing cubby hut in the bush on top of the hill - a hut with million dollar views. During winter it would be wet and sloshy as we span our wheels going up the hill, and in summer it was dry and dusty - this was a repeating cycle where the weather was fairly predictable albeit with some years somewhat wetter or drier than normal.

Our nearby town, Learmonth, was famous for it's naturally occurring lake on which sailing and power boats skimmed across the surface, and on windy winter days the chop would splash over the road that went around part of its perimeter. The local footy team (who I played with for a while) were known as the "Lakers" not just because the oval was only 100m or so from the lake shore. Footy players mostly came from the potato and dairy farms nearby, including the coaches for our junior teams.

They were great times living at Mt Bolton until mum & dad moved away in 1989, alas.

In the last 10-15 years, however, Victoria has been in the grip of a drought which has dried up not just the land but many lakes. Lake Learmonth was one such lake, as was Lake Burrumbeet just 15km or so away, and Lake Wendouree in Ballarat, just 20km from Learmonth. So instead of glistening water there were grass flats with rocks and debris previously unknown...including some tools of crime (ie, guns) disposed of where the perpetrators thought no one would ever find them. In Ballarat a local running club even held a race across Lake Wendouree, rather than the usual route around it.

It almost bought tears to my eyes to see my beautiful Lake Learmonth like this, where we hear some enterprising folks would hold B&S balls and other parties on the old lake floor. I really wondered if I'd ever see Lake Learmonth with water in again during my lifetime, although it never stopped me from visiting Learmonth if I was ever up that way.

Anyway, the recent months have seen a lot of rain with floods in the nearby towns of Clunes and Creswick, and generally high rainfall across the region. The immediately visible signs are the fields of green grass waving in the wind, plus crop of canola, wheat, oats and more. There was barely a patch of dirt to be seen...even the forever brown Pentland hills on the climb out of Bacchus Marsh have grass on them.

Last weekend Ms A and I went to stay with some of her friends up near Mt Cole, about midway between Ballarat and Beaufort. The ring road skips Ballarat (new since we lived there) and scoots out in the direction of Learmonth, joing the old Western Highway just near Burrumbeet. Then, as Lake Burrumbeet came into sight we were amazed to see it full of water. Not just puddles but full right up to the old waterline with chop being blown up by the stiff wind. My jaw dropped. This lake would be probably 15-20km around which means there must have been a LOT of rain and water flow in to full it up...it was wonderful to see.

Right then I wondered if Lake Learmonth was also full? There must be a good chance, we thought, although Ms A's friends weren't sure as they hadn't been past it. So on our return to Melbourne we took a detour along some familiar old back rounds to Learmonth. The beautiful sights and views were again there (albeit with a wind farm on some hills), and long green grass to be seen everywhere. Then Lake Learmonth came into sight....and it had water in it!!! From side-to-side and end-to-end it had water. We stopped on a hill above the town where the lake forms a wonderful foreground to Mt Bunninyong in the distance, with the pine trees along the far side now had a lake to overlook again. It was magnificent.

We drove through the town a little, passing the Stag Hotel, the general store, the primary school, the old (now closed) bakery and then turned towards the lake shore, just around from the sailing and power boat sheds which have been locked up for a long, long time. Stopping beside the rusted out weighbridge we got out and looked in wonder at Lake Learmonth again, certainly not full to the depth it used to be, but with enough water to cover the entire surface. Birds had flocked to the shores, lured by a new place to call home. Although Ms A had only ever driven through here once before (I dragged her there back in April when it was dry) I think she could see and feel the beauty of the setting of the lake surrounded by hills, with farmland, some bush, and open space to seen in every direction.

For the short time we stayed there it was a return to the good old days. I wonder how long the water will stay there for...