The drive down Maroondah Highway towards the country town of Healesville offers picturesque sceneries that include a vista of grape orchids, fallen autumn leaves and lush green grass. Located deep in the hills of the Yarra Valley, 52 kilometres north-east of Melbourne's CBD, Healesville is a country town that appeals both to tourists and to residents. With the drive taking just over an hour from Melbourne’s city, Healesville is in a prime location for travellers going on day trips or tourists passing through to travel further into the mountains.
The town of Healesville is reasonably large, with the 2015 census calculating its population to be over 13,400 residents. It’s main street, on the Maroondah Highway, features many locally owned businesses, which include cafés, boutiques, and novelty stores, but also has a handful of mainstream brands. Even with a large population, what strikes me most about Healesville is the sense of community that the town holds.
This community lifestyle was reflected in my visit to the crafts store, 'Crumbz Craft’. This gorgeous store is located at the beginning of the Healesville shopping strip when approaching from the direction of Melbourne. Its interior is filled with colourful balls of yarn and large varieties of materials in different types of designs. Hand-knitted items are for sale while patterns, sewing and embroidery supplies fill more of the shelves. The store has a cosy-country vibe and walking in you are always greeted with a warm smile from owner Kay Trembath. Trembath founded ‘Crumbz Craft’ seven years ago when she moved to Healesville with her husband for a scenery change. There were no craft stores in the area, and after discovering this market gap, she jumped on the opportunity and opened ‘Crumbz Craft’, the only store of its kind in Yarra Valley. Trembath used to live in the CBD of Melbourne, and after a bit of getting used to, she now loves the change to the country life. ‘‘I love the people. The people are really lovely people. This location is gorgeous, I mean being in the Yarra Valley, it’s not like really coming to work here. It’s just like being on holidays.’’ ‘Crumbz Craft’ is a store that embraces the community life in Healesville. I was fortunate to be exposed to this lifestyle the day I visited the store. There were a group of people knitting out the front, and I soon learned it was part of a knitting marathon that went for 31 hours straight. This event was part of Trembath’s month-long charity event ‘Yarn-a-thon’, which ran for the month of May and raised funds for the Foster Care Association of Victoria. ‘’We knitted right through the night, in shifts…it involved everybody in the community,’’ Trembath said. Community is an important part to the culture of Healesville, which is why I questioned whether locals were fond of all the tourist attention the town attracts. Without hesitation, Trembath embraced the touristic culture of the town. ‘‘I think they’re part of the community…we love the tourists coming through.’’
This attitude is reflected throughout the town. Local café owner Rick Morgan says because of the growth in Healesville, their tourist customers are just as important as the locals. ‘’Healesville is a town that’s come on tremendously in the last 20 years. So it’s a good tourist town because it’s busy in winter and busy in the summer,’’ said Morgan. Morgan co-owns the café and store ‘Watts River’ with business partner Joanne O’Rouke. They opened in November 2015, but there is much more entertaining history between the duo. Morgan is from the United Kingdom and moved with his family to Healesville in 1990. Since then, he’s always been in the café business in town, and at times had competing café’s with O’Rouke. When the opportunity came up to open ‘Watts River’, they became a duo and haven’t looked back. The café is across the road from ‘Crumbz Craft’. The store’s exterior does not reflect the size of the café’s interior. The store’s front is small and a window is placed so the inside can have a great view of the main street. When walking in, the narrowness of the stores front is expanded in the second half where the café is, to a much wider room, which then extends onto a large balcony attached to the rear of the building. The front of the café’s interior displays the store, selling cheeses and jams. Morgan proudly states that everything is homemade, from the jam on the shelves being sold to everything served to their customers in the café. With the café culture in Healesville having grown and being a competitive business in the present day, Morgan believes having the experience is what makes theirs stand out from the rest. ‘’We’ve been doing this business for a long, long time… and we know this town really quite well as well.’’ And speaking on why he’s stayed in Healesville, Morgan says because ‘‘it’s a beautiful part of the world.’’
Healesville is made up of more than just the local culture, and as both Trembath and Morgan have said, tourists are a major player in forming the culture of Healesville. From mazes to wineries and everything in between, Healesville offers a variety of options for many different audiences. But by far the most popular tourist attraction is Healesville Sanctuary. Sitting just 5 minutes out from the centre of the town, Healesville Sanctuary is part of Zoos Victoria and has a range of animals living there. From platypus enclosures to sleeping koalas and massive pythons, the zoo offers a range of different encounters with many types of animals. Personally, my favourite is the wallaby enclosure, because I was metres away from the gorgeous animals. But for many other park goers, seeing my reactions to the python’s and tiger snakes made their day that bit more entertaining, as I was almost brought to tears from fear. The sanctuary is large and takes a good day to see every animal and view any of the shows on offer throughout the day. There’s also a variety of food options when a break from observing the animals is needed. For any animal lovers, Healesville Sanctuary is a great way to spend a day out, if wanting to stick to the tourist attractions of Healesville.
Healesville is a town where you can spend several days and find plenty of things to keep you entertained. Being in the heart of the Yarra Valley, there’s many places to go and see, and as it’s only a small distance away from Melbourne, it’s the perfect location to travel to on a day trip. There are many great tourist attractions to see, but the great local culture of the town should also be explored to truly get a sense of what Healesville is all about.
