| Goldfields |
Creswick & Clunes
Goldfields, Victoria, AU
Welcome to Creswick, the home of Dirty Pig & Whistle and the beating heart of Victoria’s Goldfields. Just a cheeky gravel spin from Ballarat, its heritage buildings, sprawling parks and endless forests, are where indulgence meets adventure.
Sure, the new Djuwang Baring mountain bike trails are getting buzz, but it’s Creswick’s dirt roads that really shine. Wind through picturesque towns, rolling fields, bushland and make progress towards that big sky on your gravel steed for a legal high.
Creswick’s elegant main street was literally paved with gold. From cozy B&Bs to luxury retreats, camping parks and classic pub stays, Creswick has it all.
Make it a weekend. Ride hard, relax harder.
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Creswick
A forest Gem
Creswick is as beautiful as it is historic. Meandering its elegantly curved main street lined with shady oak and plane trees and grand buildings, it’s easy to picture what life must have been like when this was a bustling gold boomtown during the 1850s.
Thanks to the work of forestry pioneer John La Gerche, Creswick is also the birthplace of reforestation – and today, much of La Gerche’s work can be enjoyed in and around the town including majestic local street plantings and a lakeside walking trail highlighting his work.
Cycling also is a big part of the town, hosting CX and MTB events, with a major new trailhead and mtb trails being developed and a superb pump track recently built.
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Clunes
Gold town to Booktown
Our (gravel) roads take us to Clunes as our full course halfway point.
This is where Victorian gold rush fever sparked in 1851, making Australia (for a short time) the richest country in the world. Evidence of those boomtown days remain in the picturesque streets and beautifully preserved architecture of this charming little town which is considered the best collection of 19th Century buildings in Australia.
But it’s not just history buffs that crave Clunes. Literature lovers flock here each May for the largest book event in regional Australia and year-round for its status as one of only 15 internationally recognised Booktowns in the world.
