North Ringwood Senior Citizens Club
125A Warrandyte Road, North Ringwood, Vic 3134
Abbotsford Convent
10 November 2025
I thought I would tell you about our bus trip to Abbotsford Convent. We had a good crowd of 42 members. The Convent is a huge, striking building. The Catholic church was looking for somewhere to build a place to help orphans and children in the Melbourne area around the end of the 19th Century. They found some land where a couple of homes had been abandoned, so they bought the land and built the Convent. It’s actually like a small city which had it’s own shop and it’s own church. It eventually housed 200 nuns and about 600 children and people of all different ages. It was not a pleasant place but it provided shelter and food for them.
We split up into two tour groups and had a walking tour which ran for about 1¾ hours – sore feet and backs! But it was really excellent. The Convent is now owned by a not-for-profit group which leases out all the small rooms for all sorts of artistic activities. You may all have heard of the Children's Farm in Collingwood, well, that was, originally the garden run by the nuns to help feed all the people there – it’s right next door to the Convent.
Then we had a pleasant drive to Springvale to the Village Green hotel for a smorgasbord lunch. It was a really interesting day, and the rain held off!
Keith President
Como House
16 & 17 June 2025
Our two bus trips to Como House went exceedingly well. The weather fined up for us on both days, and the house guides were really informative. It’s a home that was built by a lawyer back in the 1840’s. He purchased a 50 acre block which went from Toorak Rd down to the Yarra , and from Williams Rd, to Punt Rd. The house was sold three times, and the last family had nine kids – 5 girls and 4 boys. They owned the house for 95 years – 1861 to 1956. Then the last two surviving sisters sold the house to the National Trust, which was set up just to accept it. Only one of the sisters married. Now, that’s a bit puzzling but it was probably because so many of the men they knew died in World War 1. Australia in 1914 had just 5 million people in total (we have 27 million now), and we had 60,000 Australian soldiers killed during the four years of that War. So, there was a huge gap in eligible males for many years.
The smorgasbord lunch at Water Gardens hotel was good. Both days were good.
Keith President
Around the Bay
07 April 2025. What a day we had!
We had 80 members on our Around The Bay bus trip. I would like to thank everyone who came for being on time, all jumping in and helping with the morning tea, and being patient when things went a little off plan. The way you all co-operated makes it so much easier to run a large event. So, thank you all!! Now, I did mention “Off Plan” didn’t I?
That’s because our small bus broke down!! Leaving our morning tea spot we had 54 happy travellers booming along to Sorrento, and 26 not so happy travellers stuck in a bus that wouldn’t go! We also had just 30 minutes to get on the ferry, and the second bus was stuck 15 minutes away. Fortunately, our bus driver – Rob – is a quick thinker. As soon as we arrived at the Ferry Terminal, he arranged to off-load his passengers, whilst he drove back to rescue the second lot. We did hope he might have returned in time for the Ferry, but time beat him. So he organized the bus onto the next Ferry, an hour later. Meanwhile the Ferry people shepherded us lost lambs onto the Ferry. We had a very pleasant ride over to Queenscliff – it’s a really nice trip. (The people on the second Ferry actually had a pod of dolphins accompany then, so that eased the pain a little).
Anyway, our bus company worked some magic of their own. They had a local bus company pick up the first group and delivered them to our lunch spot at The Gateway Hotel in Corio. Lunch was a smorgasbord, and it was very good. They also sent a second bus from Healesville and it arrived in good time to take the second group home. The second group caught up with us at the hotel, so, although some of our timings were a little skew whiff, we all arrived back at the Mullum Mullum Reserve right on 4.30pm.
Now Dianne and I were a little busy during all this so we didn’t get any photos, Sorry Cliff!! If any of you do have some photos you would like to share please let me know, and I’ll organize to get them to Cliff to put on our web site.
Keith President
Gumbaya Park
10 February 2025. Thirty-nine of us had an absolutely marvelous day today. Gumbaya Park looked after us so well!!
We had a Devonshire Tea as soon as we arrived – with as many scones as we wanted and lots of jam and cream. We could watch the koalas in their habitat as we ate. There is a floor to ceiling glass wall between them and us.
When we had finished the staff brought in a couple of dingos , some different types of lizards, and a diamond python to show us – they weren’t in cages so we could get close up to them. You know pythons have very big eyes when you’re just a couple of inches away from them!!. Then we had some time to walk around their wild life enclosures. They have a really good variety of animals – I think they are all Australian, and the enclosures are huge. They have albino kangaroos goats, sheep, and all sorts of others.
We went back to the same room for lunch. This was chicken, or fish, with chips and salad, and – once again – it was well presented and quite large. Then we were taken to the Free-flight bird show. They had about 6 different birds. The presenter was very entertaining, and very knowledgeable. The birds were interesting, but the hit of the day was one parrot who actually sang about six words of “How much is that doggie in the window” Fair dinkum, I think it was real - I don’t think the Presenter did it.
What a day!!
I don’t usually go on about our bus trips, but this one was so out of the ordinary I just wanted to share it with you. As well as the Wildlife Section they have a huge water section and rides area. Dianne wouldn’t let me go on the Water Slide (Thank Goodness)! We had a great time.
Queenscliff Fort
18 November 2024 Twenty nine of us had a great day out on our bus trip to the Queenscliff Fort. Although it was a long drive it was worth it. I have to admit that when it started to rain when we were about 20 minutes out of Queenscliff, Dianne and I were a LITTLE PERTURBED! But the rain stopped as we pulled up for morning tea and the sun came out so everything was good.
The Fort is still a working Army establishment so we had to show ID and our guides escorted us everywhere. But it was well organized. We had two guides: one for our members who didn’t want to climb a lot of stairs, and another who ran a complete tour. Both tours were interesting and took about an hour and a half to complete. There are numerous types of big guns, and everything is as it was years ago. We went up to the gun locations, then down to the magazines and powder rooms which were all underground in case they blew up. It’s a lovely area with beautiful views across to Point Nepean and The Heads.
It was also interesting to hear about the black and white lighthouses which are on the same piece of land. When ships come in through The Heads they line up the two lighthouses with each other until they can only see the white one in front. This shows that they are in the safe channel, which is actually quite narrow here.
We then went just around the corner to The Queenscliff Bowling Club where we had booked our lunch. This was a bit unusual as we were able to pre-book our lunches from their complete lunch menu. Normally, we can only organize a small choice. So, the lunch was on time, and really nice. We stopped on the way back for just 15 minutes at a small park in Geelong where Dianne produced some snacks for the trip home. It was a slow trip home due to all the traffic, but everyone said they enjoyed the day. Dianne and I certainly did.
Dolphin Research Institute - Hastings
22 July 2024 Forty of us had a lovely day on our bus trip to The Dolphin Research Institute (DRI) at Hastings, then, to lunch at Rosebud RSL. Now the DRI is an indoors lecture with videos and photos in a theatrette. It was fascinating (it was also warmer than when we were standing on the Hastings foreshore having our Morning Tea!!). The lecturer was the Executive Director of the DRI. He was funny, informative and absolutely loved his subject. It went for an hour and a quarter and we heard so much about what goes on in Port Phillip and Westernport Bays. Did you know that we have all kinds of dolphins, up to, and including killer whales, who live in these bays? I didn’t.
The lunch was really nice, and served promptly – we always get good comments when we use this venue. Our bus driver was excellent. So, all in all, it was another beaut day. The next one will be in November.
Victoria Police Museum
13 May 2024 What a lovely day it’s been! We stopped for morning tea at the Treasury Gardens, so people could enjoy the sunshine, and have a quick look at Captain Cooks Cottage and the Conservatory. We actually hoped to have time to go into the Cottage but our time schedule was fairly tight so it was a walk around it. (Actually the main reason we stopped there was because there was a loo there and the Police Museum does not have such a thing. We do know what our age group priorities are!).
We spent just over an hour at the Museum – it still was not enough time to see everything, it’s a very interesting place. Then we had an easy drive to The Watergate Hotel in Taylors Lakes. We’ve been there a few times before and the smorgasbord lunch is always great – a big variety and nicely prepared.
We left there about 1.45pm and we arrived back at the club about 2.40pm after a pleasant, safe drive. It was a beaut day. Keith
Marysville
5 March 2024 Our bus trip to Marysville was lovely! The weather was a perfect Autumn day, the drive was pleasant, and Bruno’s Sculpture Park was terrific. It’s a bit hard to describe. You walk along these narrow little bush tracks and everywhere you turn you find sculptures in front of you, and behind you, and all around you – it’s lovely. There are about 200 sculptures of different types in the park. Bruno came out and chatted – and chatted!, but, that was good too. We overstayed our time there so we didn’t get to the Falls. Then it was back to Healesville RSL for lunch, and it was slow, but one of the nicest meals we have had on our trips. It was a beaut day all round.
Gulf Station
20 November 2023 We actually had a great day at Gulf Station. It’s a farm just outside of Yarra Glen which was in operation from the 1840’s to the 1950’s. It supplied the gold miners around the area, then the town, as it grew, with meat of all sorts and many vegetables. It was in the hands of just one family for most of those years. The property is – largely - still in it’s original state. It’s now in the care of the National Trust, so we had three very knowledgeable guides who gave us a detailed tour for two hours. It was one of the most interesting spots we have been too. We then had lunch at York on Lilydale and back to the Club right on 3pm.
Werribee Park Mansion
19 June 2023 Remember how wet it was last Monday? Well 35 of us went on a BUS TRIP!!!
We were going to leave the Club at 9am, then travel to the Werribee Park Mansion with a morning tea stop along the way. However - with the rain pelting down – we decided to have a cuppa at the Club before we left instead of braving the rain. So we left just after 9am. The further we travelled West, the less rain we had, and by the time we got to Werribee there was no more rain, and there was none for the rest of the day.
Werribee Park Masion was built in the 1840’s for a squatter who had made his money with sheep around the Western District. It cost $120,000 – a huge amount of money in those days and it is enormous! Parks Victoria now own it and they have 40 rooms open for inspection – this is about half of the house as the rest is now a hotel. The family certainly lived in a grand manner. They had 30 staff to look after them and the grounds.
The house and the grounds are absolutely lovely. It costs $8 to enter but it’s well worth it.
We then drove to Taylors Lakes and had a lovely buffet lunch at the Watergardens Hotel. We went there a couple of times with the Club before lockdown, and the meal is still excellent.
Our driver – Roger – then drove us home via Diamond Creek and Kangaroo Ground. It was a really pleasant day. Dianne did a great job organizing the it all.
Portsea Quarantine Station
3 April 2023. What a great day, perfect weather, a new bus, good driver and great company. What more could you ask. I could have spent the whole day there, it was so interesting . Not only the historic buildings. We got to see a baby echidna meandering around, also a fish feeding frenzy right against the shore wall, also the Spirit of Tasmania making her way past. Then on to the RSL Rosebud for lunch. Can recommend the meals. We were very satisfied with the meal and the service. On the way home our bus driver Kevin, took us up over Arthurs Seat, with a photo stop on the way. We were lucky to see a classic Chevie parked at the stop as well. All this and still back by 3pm
Dianne (Secretary).