Sculptures in a garden at Marysville

Bruno Torfs was born in South America and lived there until the age of fifteen when the whole family moved to Europe.

After training and working as a sign writer Bruno made the gradual transition to fulltime artist.

When the family moved to Australia, Bruno wanted to create a sculpture garden and found the perfect place in the small Victorian village of Marysville. The luscious sub-alpine forests of the surrounding area were the ideal setting for Bruno's plan and luckily the property he purchased had a large section of rain forest attached to it. After five months of backbreaking work Bruno's art and sculpture garden was opened to the public. That was 15 years ago.

Here are some of his imaginative works that took my fancy as I wandered around his beautiful garden today.

Marysville Forest Roads

On the road from Warburton to Marysville, I just had to stop and take a picture of the beautiful trees along the way.

Marysville, Victoria

Marysville is one of the few places in Australia that has the four seasons - the russet shades of autumn, glistening snow in winter, vibrant wildflower blooms in spring and cool forest walks in the summer.

Only a short walk from the carpark is beautiful Steavenson Falls. For a dramatic photo opportunity, the falls are flood lit from dusk until 11pm.

The Peach Orchard at Warburton

I can't resist peaches so we paid a visit to Rayners Stonefruit Orchard, not far up the road from Warburton. Just in time for afternoon tea at the Peach Cafe, Dennis had peach pie with cream and I had Devonshire tea (warm scones with strawberry jam and cream).

We bought a small box of white peaches, white nectarines, and blue plums. They also sell peach ice cream and a large assortment of fruit jams and chutney. I couldn't resist the peach and glace ginger jam and also a peach, red capsicum and chilli chutney.

Warburton, Victoria

After spending so much time on the coast, we fancied a cool flowing river -somewhere surrounded with beautiful scenery. And that’s what we got at Warburton in the Yarra Valley, only 100 kms from Melbourne.

It’s pot luck really, choosing a place to stay when you know absolutely nothing about the area but when I read ‘Warburton is an attractive town on the Yarra River, nestled in a valley between heavily forested mountains’ I thought it was worth a go.

I took these pics this afternoon on the track that follows the river from the Caravan Park, which is where we are staying.

Walhalla, Victoria

View from Walhalla pub

We were told that the road into Walhalla was unsuitable for caravans so we stayed at Erica but when we got there, we noticed quite a few caravans in a quiet, grassy 'free camping' spot, so they had obviously managed the road without any problems. There is even a sign on the way in that says ‘Road not suitable for caravans’.

Gold was discovered in the area in 1863 but it was the discovery of Cohen’s Reef which was almost 3 kilometres long that put Walhalla on the map.

The lure of gold brought men from all over the world and at the height of the rush, Walhalla had 15 hotels, 40 shops, two breweries, seven churches, a school and its own newspaper. Today the population is around 20 and the town is a tourist attraction with many restored buildings.

Don’t miss the cemetery, it’s a walk up a steep hill but an interesting place. This photo of a gravestone gives an insight into just how tough life was here in those days, a mother loses her husband, toddler son and infant daughter all within a few months of one another.

We almost didn’t get to Walhalla, it was out of the way a bit, but I’m pleased we came, a very pretty place.

Moto GP Phillip Island

Marlboro Ducati's Casey Stoner won last year's MotoGP race at Phillip Island in front of his hometown crowd. The Australian, started the race from pole position and led every single lap of the 27-lap race.