JOURNEY along the ESPLANADE at lakes WORDS: JOHN MUNNS
Much has been written about Lakes Entrance, usually because it is the only entrance to the Gippsland Lakes the largest navigable inland waterway in Australia, but there is so much more to this township. One simple attraction catering for all ages can be used by walkers, runners, with prams/pushers, mobility scooters, "wheelie walkers" and even yes, bikes (with care) is arguably the longest, unbroken, all accessible, most varied waterside pathway in Australia. By my calculations, to be confirmed by a pedometer, Fitbit, or long tape! our walk commences just east of Koonwarra Holiday Park, and is unbroken and almost flat a tad over 3 km to the roundabout at the highway bridge, if you include the pathway over the highway bridge and along to Kalimna Jetty (which is unsealed) this unbroken path covers over 5 kms. Divert over the footbridge to the Ninety Mile Beach, the total distance is almost 6 kms, and the closest point where the Princes Highway comes to the ocean between Sydney and Melbourne, another piece of trivia. Is it the best in Victoria even Australia? Locals say yes, of course, its diversity and interest is wide-ranging along the entire route so let’s explore its origins and journey from the east, westward.
Lakes Entrance is its third name, John Reeves explored the lakes in 1843, settlers arrived and cattle runs established soon after, a few holiday houses were constructed, the locality becoming known as Campbell Town. First negotiated by ship in 1858, soon vessels were regularly entering the lakes and a township, Cunninghame after a pioneer Gippsland squatter, was surveyed near Lake Bunga in 1866. A post office ‘Cunninghame’ was opened in 1870 changing its name to Lakes Entrance in 1915. The local Kurnai Dreamtime legend explains the lakes: “a frog swallowed all of the world's water. The other animals tried to make the frog surrender the water by making it laugh. All deliberate attempts at humour failed but the sight of the eel standing upright on its tail caused the frog to laugh, the water was disgorged and the subsequent flood is said to have created the lakes”. For walkers, joggers, runners this is a great ready-made track, for the rest of us ‘normal people’, what does it offer? We start our journey near the calm upper reaches of Cunninghame Arm, (locally ‘the front lake’) laden with swans, pelicans and other bird-life, until you approach the precincts of the town and bridge. The winding walk provides serenity watching the water birds and the waters lapping the sandy shoreline.
Bellevue Guest House – State Library of Victoria
132
gippsland lifestyle spring ����