General News
15 July, 2025
Local activities for the family
Numerous locations through-out the Central Goldfields and surrounds will feature in an upcoming guidebook encoura-ging children and young families to explore Northern Victoria.
Big Adventures for Little Legs: Northern Victoria is one of three self published books by Greg and Dianne, a couple with two young children of their own, hoping to inspire families to get engaged with nature-based exploring.
One of the book’s co-authors, Greg, said the book came about as the young family began to explore outdoor day trips that were reasonable for small children.
“The real hope for us is to get more families out exploring, there’s so much to see in your own backyard, and it really encourages connection and learning local history,” he said.
“We’ve been doing outdoorsy stuff for years. So we just had so many hidden gems that people didn’t know about. When we had kids ourselves, we had to modify our adventures but we still wanted to be able to take the kids out. So we started getting a real feel of what was doable, or what wasn’t.”
This soon to be released edition is a family friendly, full colour guidebook featuring 101 carefully selected outdoor destinations.
Locations that will feature in the book will include waterfalls, caves, forests, lookouts, swimming holes and more.
Greg said there are various locations featured in close proximity to Maryborough.
“There’s the Owl painting in Avoca and we’ve got the Loddon River Wier walk. The Quartz Mountain stones are so unique, we’ve never seen something quite like them,” he said.
“There’s something about the Central Goldfields that is really special, the beauty is really in the detail. There’s many great spots out there.”
Almost every location is also free.
Greg said by compiling so many locations in close proximity to each other, the book shows several locations that can be visited within small trips.
“If we could really convince people in regional Victoria that there is so much to see, it’s worth the journey. We have put together region maps, so people make a day trip of it, and they aren’t going an hour out to do just one walk,” he said.
“You can just go away for a weekend and see so many great places that are just in everyone’s backyard.”
Most importantly, each location mentioned in the book, including those in the Goldfields, has been thoroughly assessed by its target audience experts.
“Not only have the kids posed for thousands of photos, but they are doing it all too. We asked them ‘what did you think of that?’ and they’re like ‘definitely put that in the book’ or ‘that was boring’ or ‘I kind of like that one’,” Greg said.
“Every single photo we have in this book, our kids are in it. By taking the kids and having them do the adventures themselves, people can see every single one, they have been to themselves.
“We really wanted the images to tell the story. Some hiking books will have such a beautiful walk with a beautiful photo, and then have someone waffling on for a couple of pages. We aren’t doing an e-book, we just want parents to sit down with it and look through together.”
Greg said the book includes a selection of adventures specially designed for children of all ages, from toddlers taking their first bushwalk to older kids chasing high-adrenaline challenges.
“In the start of the book, we have made our own grading for children, like easy moderate difficult, most of them fall into easy to moderate, but we have given people a mix as well. There are some that are super simple that you can take a baby on, but there are also some where the kids are going to be on all fours climbing,” he said.
“But they are still locations that anyone can go to. If there are adults that want to get out and about, but don’t want to do big or hard walks, that’s also perfect.”
Locations throughout Victoria will be covered across the three books, with the others showcasing Victoria’s east and west.
The book is currently in pre-release, with full availability expected mid-August.
It will be stocked in regional bookstores and available online at www.bigadventuresforlittlelegs.com.