Wednesday, April 16, 2014

On the road - vintage goodies in regional Victoria



It has been nearly two months since we went to Daylesford and there has simply been no time to blog about it at all. In fact there is a major backlog of posts swirling around in my head that hopefully will flood out when I have some more time. Life has been full, too full in fact for my liking, so it is nice to slow down and reminisce over those Daylesford days.

One of the things I like most about exploring a new place is sniffing out all the op shops and second hand stores. To find something to add to the collection back home and also give fond memories of the places we went to. While we didn't have any luck in the oppies around Daylesford, it didn't matter because just around the corner was the biggest collection of vintage ephemera I have ever seen.

Would you believe that when we planned to go to Daylesford I had no idea that on the edge of town was one of the largest collections of vintage and second hand goods in the southern hemisphere? I'm talking about the Mill Markets of which there are three locations - Daylesford, Ballarat and Geelong.




If you can picture a warehouse the size of a football field and then some,  you get the rough idea. It was so big we had to take a pause half way around and have lunch in the cafe! Trying to choose goodies from this kind of smorgasbord was a little challenging, but knowing I had to squeeze any purchases into a suitcase did help.




When overwhelmed with options only the most special items would be coming home but I was more than happy to swoon over all that retro colour.




So how about the goodies?

A lovely child sized apron for my girl,



An amazing retro pvc lined bag that  knew I have a true passion for pvc lined bags (this is my third),




an amazing hat the exact size for my girl ( this was the one item I chose from the Ballarat store),




a lovely old print,




and a roll of wallpaper that was sealed up and I chose for the colours ( presuming it was florals) but opened to discover it was in fact a bunch of crazy disco floral animals. Check out the 'fro on that lion/poodle creature!




As if the Mill Markets were not enough, there was also the Daylesford Bazaar in the main street but thankfully nothing was calling  my name there.




On the way to Ballarat we stopped at a tiny town called Talbot, population 258. Incredibly there was not one, but two antique shops in this tiny town. It turns out they were owned by a husband and wife, and they each had their own shop. His was enormous and chock full of more traditional crockery and furniture. Hers was more my style with vintage kitchenalia and early Australiana items. Their shops were on either side of their house, where they could pop back for lunch and to see the pets. To me it seemed a wholly ideal scenario for two collectors with different tastes. I not only found the little green egg cup but also this lovely pastel set of bowls.























The unexpected highlight was the drive back to Melbourne on our last day and all those outer suburban op shops. These three pieces of milk glass set me back $5 for the lot.




I was however very restrained and left this lovely collection for someone else.




And then at the final hour I stumbled over a wonderful pink sewing case for $5 shortly before getting on the plane - a perfect carry on bag.




In our last few hours we also made a flying visit to Gleaners Inc in Brunswick, what a lovely, lovely shop ( I may or may not have bought a dress (or two) in here).





A brief visit to the site of  "The Block",




and that was Melbourne and Daylesford and all the goodness in between.



8 comments:

  1. Great little finds. Looks like you had an amazing holidays. Daylesford is on my list of places to go!! Hope to get there one day xx

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  2. Mmmmm those Mill Markets are addictive. Glad to see that our lovely Victoria was able to provide you with some vintage goodies.

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  3. What lovely things you found!! I think that you were very restrained in what you bought as I spied lots of things in your general view photos that would have tempted me. You have way better shops than we do for this sort of thing! xx

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  4. oh wow! ....we are driving from Adelaide to Melbourne in July and have booked into a B &B in Daylesford for a couple of nights...and I was only last night wondering where to find some goodies......serendipidous!!!!!!!!!!! xxxx

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  5. What a great trip. Then again, I'm trying to avoid places like that market (looks amazing!!) so probably best I'm safely on the other side of the country.

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  6. When travelling I always try to research the oppies around.
    The milkglass is very pretty.
    I think I could spend a small fortune in Gleaners Inc. x

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  7. OOOH Daylesford! I'm putting that on my bucket list. Op shopping' heaven.
    It reminds me of a huge version of Woolangabba Antiques. We should have coffee there one day when life leaves us alone long enough!

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  8. I'm drooling over this post. I would love to spend hours in places like those, just stopping to refuel before treasure hunting again. Love the milk glass and I feel the exact same way about PVC bags too xo

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