Fast facts
- The final resting place of HMAS Otway, a 90-m submarine
- A rural town at the centre of a vast farming and grazing region
- 492 km south-west of Sydney, population 1,200
Why go there
Holbrook is an ideal stopover for people wishing to break the journey between Sydney and Melbourne.
There is plenty to see and do in this small country town, which offers picturesque parklands and bushwalks, historic buildings and submarine regalia.
You can clamber all over HMAS Otway, which lies in parkland on the main road, as well as inspect a full-size torpedo.
History
The township of Holbrook was originally named Friday Mount and Camden Forest by explorers Hume and Hovell in 1824.
It was renamed Ten Mile Creek in 1856, after the creek nearby, and in 1876, the name changed again to Germanton, in honour of a German pioneer.
Finally, during World War I, anti-German sentiment led to it being renamed Holbrook, after British Navy Submarine Commander Norman Holbrook, who torpedoed a Turkish battleship in 1914 in the Dardennelles.
Things to do
- Browse in Grimwoods, a replica of one of the first stores in town, now housing local art and crafts.
- Stroll through Ten Mile Gardens, an idyllic park with picnic and barbecue facilities.
- Visit the Woolpack Museum, where 22 rooms – including a schoolroom, a cordial factory and a working blacksmith’s forge – chronicle yesteryear.
Don’t miss
- The Submarine Museum, with its hands-on exhibits.
- A half-hour tramp through the bush on the Ian Geddes Walk.
- Germanton Park, with its memorial to European pioneers.
- The Holbrook Bakery, famous for its traditional breads, lamingtons and the Aussie meat pie.
- Pottering around the National Pottery Museum.
