Sweet Skipton

 

 Home of the Platypus

Skipton a small rural town in Western Victoria is known as the home of the platypus.  Skipton is on Wadawurrung country.  I had planned to visit Skipton on my list for awhile as after seeing online the beautiful mural decorated on the Emu Creek deli cafe and the stunning sculpture. I knew I had to see these beautiful creations in person.  Skipton sadly was affected by the recent 2022 floods but luckily the sculpture and new mural on the cafe were still in amazing condition.  The mural features the platypus which is often seen within the nearby Mt Emu creek and eucalyptus leaves and flowers found within the area. Artist Mike Makatron and Conrad Bizjak created the mural found on Montgomery Street.

Stewart Park

Stewart park is a beautiful community park located around the Mt Emu creek and features a platypus viewing area as well as a stunning new platypus swimming around reeds sculpture. The sculpture was created in collaboration with Mike Makatron and Art box more information on the sculpture can be found here .

Local children's art on wooden poles

Local children's art on wooden benches in Stewart Park

Flood recovery

Back in October 2022 Skipton was sadly flooded when the Mt Emu Creek rose to 5.5 metres.  Luckily the town has recovered from the flood and hopes that tourists return.  A lovely mural by the well known artist Jimmi Buscombe is featured on Mt Emu Bridge and is used as a visual gauge to monitor the water levels during a flood and for residents to act if the levels are rising. It features a platypus, galah and brolga. As I visited after the October 2022 floods sadly the platypus was covered up in mud left over from the flood. Below are the before and after photos of the mural so you can see how high the water rose. 

After flood platypus covered

Mural before floods, platypus bottom left corner (sourced from 95.3 Coast FM website)

After flood

Final thoughts

Skipton is a lovely quite town I had hoped to spend more time there but given that public transport is not that regular to the town I could only spend a few hours there. The BP petrol stop is a good spot for a something to eat and is popular with the locals. Sadly the Emu Creek deli and cafe was closed when I visited but it looked charming. I spoke to a few locals and they spoke of their platypus sightings in the local creek which made me smile, I was unable to see one but hope to return to spot one next time.

Video extras