Some 20 minutes due south of Pakenham and straddling the South Gippsland Highway is the town of Tooradin. It’s a difficult place to sum up in a word – nothing seems up to the task of encapsulating the unusual collection of features that make up this little town.
The first thing we noticed (after Siri deposited us amongst backroad farms, leaving us to navigate toward the town proper ourselves) was the mangroves. Thick, lush greenery lines the edges of the Sawtell Inlet, the roots of the trees visible above the waterline. The inlet comes through a weir under the highway, fans out to a large kind of lake, then separates into two channels. A scenic bridge crosses from one side to the other just near the weir. Gravelled paths around the waterways offer a pleasant walk. Along the shorelines, and standing on purpose-built platforms, people fished the inlet.
Near the water’s edge, we found a large statue of a bunyip. The name Tooradin is taken from a Boon Wurrung word meaning “bunyip”, based on Dreamtime stories that told of bunyips living in the Nar Nar Goon area. Behind that is the start of the shopping precinct. There is a public toilet block facing out toward the water, though I recommend packing the hand sanitiser as there was little in the way of soap left in the dispensers. It was a quiet Tuesday afternoon, just about on 5pm, and much of the town was closed or finishing up for the day.
We started walking toward the middle of the short town centre to get to the pedestrian crossing so we could make for the foreshore. Along the way we spotted an intriguing shop called Nick’s Trash to Treasure. Nick and his family were busy pulling in great trolleys mounded with stock from the front of the shop. Or, a part of the shop, as it turns out – the store encompassed two whole shops’ worth and appeared to be the answer to a question involving the outcome of crossing a hoarder with a variety store. The items in the display window – besides being fantastically mismatched, and in some cases broken, were so sun-faded that it seemed they’d been there for many years. Inside was everything from books and toys and board games to… Well, I doubt there was much NOT represented amongst the teetering piles and mountainous displays and piles upon piles of stuff.
Other shops in the town included a fish and chip shop, pizza joint, bank, grocery store, fishing supplies store, and a secondhand bookstore that gave a similar vibe to Nick’s. We crossed the road and walked toward the foreshore, where we found an ice cream shop facing the water. There was nothing in particular to indicate that it was open, and the interior of the shop, though vast, was sparsely decorated or furnished. Nevertheless, we were satisfied with a round of ice creams, and sallied on to the foreshore via a concrete path travelling alongside the water.
Up at the foreshore we found a playground, an amazing quantity of picnic tables and an undercover BBQ, more toilets, and a short boardwalk that takes you out amongst the mangroves. They stretch out toward the horizon, vibrant green dappled with yellow highlights and deeper shadows.
We bought fish and chips from Tooradin Original Fish and Chip shop and it was fair decent, with reasonably priced food. We cruised down the jetty for a bit, where they have a number of fish-cleaning stations for fishers to process their catch.
All in all, it was well worth the short trip down to explore and I’m sure we’ll head back soon to further explore the walking tracks, check out the cafes (when they’re open) and maybe duck into the historic cottage.
