EZTrip.com International Destination Guide and Hotel Listings

Three highways converge at HAMILTON , where you can see the Grampians from the edge of the main street. It's a civilized little city whose main claim to fame is that it's the "Wool Capital of the World". The only reason you're likely to be here is if you're a traveller passing through, en route from the Goldfields to South Australia, or from the mountains to the coast. There's plenty to distract you, however, and the friendly Hamilton Visitor Information Centre on Lonsdale Street (daily 9am-5pm; tel 03/5572 3746 or free call 1800 807 056) can book accommodation if you decide to stay.

The most worthwhile of the town's five museums and galleries is the Hamilton Art Gallery , on Brown Street (Mon-Fri 10am-5pm, Sat 10am-noon & 2-5pm, Sun 2-5pm; donation), one of the finest provincial art galleries in the state. Its collection of eighteenth-century watercolours of English pastoral scenes by Paul Sandby is the largest outside Britain; among other gems are ninety engravings by William Hogarth and several pieces of eighteenth-century English furniture. The influence of the rich, local Ansett family (of airline fame) is obvious; many of the excellent contemporary paintings were acquired through the Ansett Hamilton Art Awards.

Also in the town centre, but of marginal interest, is the Hamilton History Centre (2-5pm; closed Sat; $1), located in the Mechanics Institute Building at 43 Gray St. East of town, on the Ballarat Road, is the Sir Reginald Ansett Transport Museum (daily 10am-4pm; $2), charting the history of the Ansett flight network which began here, while The Big Woolbales (daily 9.30am-4pm) on Coleraine Road contain a small exhibition telling you about the wool industry of the Western district; shearing demonstrations can be arranged (tel 03/5571 2810). There's also some refreshing greenery in the town centre: the Botanical Gardens are on the corner of French and Thompson streets, just one block from Gray Street, the main thoroughfare, while the banks of the Grange Burn are home to the eastern barred bandicoot, the only known population in mainland Australia. Grange Burn flows into man-made Lake Hamilton , which has a safe, sandy swimming beach and is filled with trout.