The Young and the Restless
The Young and The Restless | Purging the past for a new golden memory
For more than a decade, I had one wall-worthy picture of my kids in a canola crop that never got hung on an actual wall because every time I looked at it, I thought of vomit.
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It’s not often an image of my kids inspires such a reaction. Or that a mother admits that.
But it’s not what you might think.
The day it was taken, my youngest, who was only around one at the time, spent the afternoon after the morning’s photo shoot projectile vomiting.
Maybe some reaction to the plant itself — he did put everything in his mouth at that stage — or maybe something completely unrelated.
Either way, it’s all I think of when I look at the otherwise adorable and perfectly composed picture.
I can’t be the only one who looks at a picture and sees more than just that second captured in time, right?
After all, ‘they’ say a picture is worth a thousand words.
A picture reminds me of everything that happened that day, that night, that trip, that event, that tragedy.
There’s something about reclaiming spaces where a bad memory was made to ensure a newer, better one overrides it.
While not the same crop its owner kindly allowed us entry to all those years ago, we had another opportunity to frolic in fields of floral gold at the weekend.
And for the next couple of weeks — or however long nature decides this season’s canola will flower bright and breathtakingly in one of our three bold primary colours — any member of the public can do so also for a small fee in Cornella.
The Cornella Canola Walk, accessed via The Shiraz Republic — a vineyard, winery, brewery and farm-stay accommodation — is in its third year.
We visited in its third week of being open this season.
It only flowers for a couple of months and we didn’t want to miss it, but it’s getting harder to get away on weekends as the kids get older and have more of their own responsibilities.
So we found ourselves heading out of town at 2pm on a Sunday after my eldest finished work; a time a few years ago we’d have aimed to return home by.
Luckily, Cornella is only about an hour’s drive from Shepparton, positioned roughly halfway between Colbinabbin and Heathcote.
We figured we’d get there by 3pm, explore for an hour or two and still get home before dark in these slowly lengthening days.
From the roads that led us to this quaint patch of rural Victoria on our afternoon drive that doubled as more learning hours for my L-plater, the canola looks like a lowish, solid carpet of yellow.
Within the crop that has purposely carved out walking tracks to avoid damaging it, the stalks stood high enough that their canary-coloured tops were at my face level in some places.
On foot, there’s much more green to be seen among it. In all its luminous glory, the yellow forms the canopy and gives the illusion of the striking, seemingly solid gold fields from a distance.
Among the crop and its many paths leading to Insta-worthy photographic opportunities for those who pose and folks dressed in their best, you’ll also find an old Bedford truck that’s been converted into a safe viewing platform.
When you mount it and see the 360-degree panoramic views, you might just be inspired to hit play on a Coldplay classic.
For it was, in fact, all yellow.
A little further on, underneath a bare, ancient tree, sits a piano surrounded by the same golden oilseed.
My boys sat to play and then, remembering they’re as musically challenged as their mother, amusingly set a YouTube piano piece playing while they ‘piano-synced’ (I assume that’s fake piano playing’s answer to fake singing’s lip-syncing? Or would it be ‘air piano’?).
Also in the crop is a picnic area.
Guests can save money by taking their own food along.
Despite doing just that, we opted to spend some dough on some dough — in the form of the cellar door’s too-tempting wood-fired pizzas and giant hot pretzels.
We then parked ourselves in seats where we could see the rustic truck-bed stage for live music and next to an outdoor billiard table to shoot some pool while waiting for our feast.
If we had a whole day, we could have spent it there.
But as it turns out, we didn’t need more than the two rare spare hours we were gifted one Sunday in September to enjoy what this little magic tourist attraction had to offer anyway.
∎ The Cornella Canola Walk can be found at The Shiraz Republic, past Colbinabbin and before Heathcote. The cost is $10 for adults, $5 for kids. Allow at least an hour.
Senior journalist