Look what’s on our doorstep

I was reminded of this on a trip to my uncle’s home in the Northern Grampians last weekend when he made a comment while I watched in wonderment a breathtaking sunset over a sparkling body of water from the top of a steep rocky hill, as cautious kangaroos bounded away from us.

The only other noises came from the many birds in nearby trees and the Merino sheep baaing in the distance.

The air had grown crisp, but it felt so fresh and cleansing.

The milky quartz scattered over the ground sent my imagination back to the Gold Rush era as I wondered whether all the gold had been found in that challenging terrain.

He told me the property was 2000 acres, but the hills aren’t counted.

And we were on a high, sprawling hill in the clouds with unobscured 360-degree views.

How could this be discounted? Ignored? Not THE most celebrated piece of the land?

“Yeah, sometimes we forget to appreciate what’s right in front of us, I guess,” he said to me, as he recognised my awe of the landscape on which he lived.

The Goulburn Valley sometimes gets a bad rap, often unfairly.

Sure we have our big issues, with some of the highest homelessness rates in the state, too much violence and increasing youth violence, and you only need to chuck one lap around town to see that drugs, too, are a problem here.

Drive a little further outside the city limits – in any direction – and you’ll bust a wheel in a road crater (kind of tired of that pothole word; whinging about them doesn’t get us anywhere).

But, while it might be one of the flattest places on earth geographically, it’s still so picturesque.

Have you seen a sunset from our manmade hill, Honeysuckle Rise, at the botanic gardens? Or a sunrise from one of our country’s lowest peaks, Mt Major, at Dookie?

Have you walked the shared river paths while the late afternoon winter sun beams warm dappled light through the droplet-laden eucalyptus leaves?

Or at first light next to the river when the ghostly mist is still rising from the water?

Have you taken a drive to the districts during canola season and seen the land carpeted in gold?

What about the sunflower fields? Even the rows of fruit trees are pretty, and so very Goulburn Valley in essence.

Have you ridden along rail trails beside farmland and heartily mooed in greeting to the cows by the fencelines?

Maybe you’ve even mooed at the fibreglass cows in the Moooving Art herd.

Nature aside, have you been inside our world-class motoring museum? Our art museums (the biggest one currently houses classic works of some of history’s most famed artists, including Degas, Dali and Picasso)? Our jam-packed historical museums?

Have you worked your way through the menus at our divine eateries? How does anyone even decide where to dine out when the choice of good food is so plenty?

You want something to do on a weekend? There’s entertainment complexes, a cinema, shopping, markets; and those are just the regular things.

I often get FOMO because events clash and I’m forced to choose between several of them.

I’ve booked a five-day family holiday away — just five days — and during that time there are three things happening here that I’d like to go to, but I’m going to miss.

Things did used to feel like they slowed in winter, but this regional city no longer sleeps the season away.

And I fear when we don’t open our eyes properly, we sleep opportunities away too.

My young, being teenagers, might be in that sleeping things away phase.

But the restless has given up on the idea of ever really considering resting an option.

Life is short and there is so much to see and do.

Not everything costs money, or much of it, and you don’t have to go far to stay busy and entertained.

Life is what you make it, so they say, and so are places.

While there’s no denying some things need to change here (and they aren’t problems exclusive to Shepparton), not least are some of the attitudes of the joykillers.

Mindset absolutely matters.

And so does being a tourist in your own town every once in a while.

Thanks for the reminder, unc.