Marvelous Marysville: The Beauty Spot Trail and Steavensons Falls (with our Fairy Princess tour guide)

“See this tree, everyone?” Our little Fairy Princess lifts up the branch of a tree-fern beside the track. “These are little fairy homes.”

The cuteness is almost too much to bear. For some reason, as soon as her feet hit the walking trail, she’s decided she’ll be our guide for this hike.

“Now class, just over there you can hear water. This is where the Water Fairies live. It’s very important that they have water to survive.”

On the quest to introduce my three favourite people to all of my favourite Victorian places, we’ve taken a day-trip to Marysville with the intention of exploring the trails around Lady Talbot Drive. There’s only one problem, I didn’t take my own advice and have forgotten to check the Parks Victoria website first… Lady Talbot Drive is closed due to fallen trees.

A quick look at the Marysville app reveals something called The Beauty Spot trail, right on the outskirts of Marysville. We decide to walk that instead, following the winding, gently graded trail alongside Leary Creek into a gully, thick with tree-ferns. It’s no match for some of the trails along Lady Talbot Drive but, in no time, the kids are having a great time and we’re more relaxed than we’ve been all day.

The Fairy Princess’s tour-guide game continues to the point where every trail marker along this rainforest track is some kind of ticket booth, where we each have to scan our tickets to pass through. How can we argue? It’s incredible to see her getting this into a hike.

After just over an hour, we return to the car park laughing our heads off. We’re in the perfect mood for a picnic lunch, so we head back into Marysville to eat and enjoy the incredible park that’s helping breathe life into the town, since the Black Saturday bushfires nearly completely destroyed it. The park is cleverly designed and all abuzz with other families enjoying the crisp winter sunshine. Lori and I have almost as much fun as the kids do.

Before we can head back to Melbourne, we have to make the short trip to Steavensons Falls. It’s only about 4 km from the town center and is probably Maryville’s most popular tourist attraction, not to mention one of Victoria’s highest waterfalls. We take the short stroll to the two viewing platforms and, though it’s certainly no bushwalk, it’s well worthwhile to check out such a majestic waterfall and we getting a good soaking from the spray at its base. Our day out in Marysville is complete.

When we make it home, thoroughly exhausted but feeling positive about a great day out with the kids, I’m reminded that I’ve never left Marysville in a bad mood. I’m grateful that the Black Saturday tragedy hasn’t taken that away, and I still get to share it with the most important people in my life.

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