Victoria

Overview
Victoria is possibly Australia's most diverse state. In a half-hour drive from Melbourne you could be taking in mist-laden mountain ranges and ferry gullies. In an hour you could be lying on a sandy beach in a sheltered bay, or surfing in the rugged Southern Ocean. In around four hours you could be standing on the edge of the immense desert that stretches away into Australia's interior. In a country full of mind-numbing distances, nothing seems far away in Victoria.

Melbourne was only founded in 1835, as a kind of after thought to Sydney and Hobart, but by the 1850's Victoria was off to a racing start. A deluge of people from all corners of the world fanned out across the state in response to the madness that was gold. It brought prosperity to Victoria and it also brought the certain wildness treasured in the state's history - uprisings like the Eureka Rebellion and bushrangers like Ned Kelly.

Two centuries later Victoria has matured and recognised another form of wealth - the richness of its natural landscape. To the west of Melbourne beyond Geelong, a tract of cool-temperate rainforests unravels on its way to the vivid, green Cape Otway, where a lighthouse stands on the cliff-top. The Great Ocean Road winds past here, en route to the state's iconic limestone stacks, the Twelve Apostles.

On the other side of Melbourne the land falls away into a series of peninsulas, islands and isthmuses. One leads to Wilsons Promontory, an untouched landscape of forested hills, tea-brown rivers and beaches strewn with enormous rust-red boulders.

Agriculture has rendered this part of the state a patchwork of green paddocks, from which come some of the finest cheeses in the country. And on Melbourne's doorstep, the amber-hued Yarra Valley produces some of the finest cool-climate wines.

From the Yarra Valley, the landscape begins its gradual climb up into the High Country. In winter it is a vista of snowfields, but before skiers -and before the rugged horsemen of the 19th century - these mountains were the domain of the Aboriginal tribes of the north-east. They congregated here in summer to trade, arrange marriages, settle disputes and feast on bogong moths.

Perhaps Victoria's most cherished place is the Grampians, an offshoot of the Great Dividing Range that rises up from the wheat fields and paddocks of the Western District. With a quarter of the state's flora and 80 percent of its Aboriginal rock art, the Grampians is a living gallery and superb place for bushwalking and camping.

Victoria has quiet places too, away from the crowds. Like the remote beaches of East Gippsland, where you can feel like Robinson Crusoe, or Little Desert National Park, in the state's west. This park may look plain on the surface, but if you're quiet and keep your eyes open, you might see a mallee fowl incubating its egg on an enormous, sprawling mound, and if you come in spring, you'll see ground orchids blooming across the plains. Little Desert National Park has more than 670 plant species within its borders, and across Victoria there are at least as many things to see and do for travellers.

Victoria Climate
The climate of Victoria is usually moderate, and most of the state is in the warm and temperate band of the southeast corner of Australia with warm and dry summers and cool, wet winters; however temperatures can vary widely from region to region. Most of The Australian Alps in the northeast have snow from June to September, while the eastern highlands, Gippsland and the Otway Ranges to the west receive the heaviest rainfall. Melbourne has a variable climate that is well known for its four-seasons-in-a-day weather patterns, but generally June and July are the coldest months, January and February are the hottest, and October is the wettest time of year.