The Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh will spend a typical Australian bush weekend on March 6 to 8, at O'Shannassy Reservoir.
It is their only free weekend in Victoria and the only other place the will reside in the State apart from Government House in Melbourne and the Royal Train.
The 40-year-old Board of Works chalet at O'Shannassy, 60 miles from Melbourne, has been renovated for the Queens stay.
It is an unpretentious timber cottage painted white, with red-painted galvanised iron roof and wide verandahs.
The chalet is in two blocks, the sleeping quarters and dining room and kitchen.
The Queen will have to walk along an exposed concrete path from the sleeping quarters to the dining room 50 ft. away for meals.
She will eat vegetables grown in the kitchen garden, eggs from the poultry shed, milk and cream from the Jersey cows, and home-made butter churned by Mrs. Bill Holding Manageress.
Mrs. Holding, as slim, attractive woman, with short grey hair, does all the chalet cooking on a big wood range. Electric light is from the Chalet's own generator and there are kerosene refrigerators.
Mrs. Holding also waits on table. She says she will wear a simple afternoon frock and high-heeled shoes when she waits on the Royal party.
A typical Australian touch on the weekend will be a cluster of koala bears, gathered for the occasion and loged in a tree near the house.
The Queen will also be able to fish for trout in the 75 acre O'Shannassy dam, four miles from the house. Other diversion include quoits, a putting green and tennis court.
The Queens bedroom, which overlooks an expanse of forested mountains, has been re-decorated in lilac and white lilac grey carpet and glazed chintz curtains in lilac and chartreuse.
O'Shannassy Chalet
Probably no better place than the O'Shannassy Chalet could have been chosen to give the Queen and Duke of Edinburgh a glimpse of Victorian bushland.
The Chalet where the Royal couple have been spending a two-day rest period before leaving the State, stands on the side of the O'Shannassy River Valley, about 10 miles beyond Warburton.
It consists of two timber buildings, framed by wide verandahs and separated by 50 ft. of garden.
The building used by the Queen and her husband and their personal staff contains six bedrooms and a lounge. Four more bedrooms and the dining room are in the other building.
Both buildings front a semi-circular lawn dotted with trees and sloping away to the valley below.
In the surrounding gardens petunias, phlox, marigolds, dahlias, zinnias, pansies portulaca and sweet peas blaze with colour.
Misspelt
The Chalet was not built as some unkindly believe, as a sort of rest home for weary Commissioners of the Metropolitan Board.
When the board first began work on the O'Shannassy Weir in 1910, the area was almost a day's travel from Melbourne.
The Chalet was built to give overnight accommodation to supervising engineers and members of the board on visits of inspection.
It was retained on completion of the works for the use of the board, distinguished visitors and suburban councillors who might visit the area to learn sometimes at first hand of Melbourne's Water supply.
Oddly though perhaps appropriate in a bushland setting where time and formality mean little, the chalet and the river from which it is named have been spelt with an "n" too many for years beyond memory.
The river was named after Sir John O'Shanassy three times Premier of Victoria between 1857 and 1861.
Probably no better place than the O'Shannassy Chalet could have been chosen to give the Queen and Duke of Edinburgh a glimpse of Victorian bushland.
The Chalet where the Royal couple have been spending a two-day rest period before leaving the State, stands on the side of the O'Shannassy River Valley, about 10 miles beyond Warburton.
It consists of two timber buildings, framed by wide verandahs and separated by 50 ft. of garden.
The building used by the Queen and her husband and their personal staff contains six bedrooms and a lounge. Four more bedrooms and the dining room are in the other building.
Both buildings front a semi-circular lawn dotted with trees and sloping away to the valley below.
In the surrounding gardens petunias, phlox, marigolds, dahlias, zinnias, pansies portulaca and sweet peas blaze with colour.
Misspelt
The Chalet was not built as some unkindly believe, as a sort of rest home for weary Commissioners of the Metropolitan Board.
When the board first began work on the O'Shannassy Weir in 1910, the area was almost a day's travel from Melbourne.
The Chalet was built to give overnight accommodation to supervising engineers and members of the board on visits of inspection.
It was retained on completion of the works for the use of the board, distinguished visitors and suburban councillors who might visit the area to learn sometimes at first hand of Melbourne's Water supply.
Oddly though perhaps appropriate in a bushland setting where time and formality mean little, the chalet and the river from which it is named have been spelt with an "n" too many for years beyond memory.
The river was named after Sir John O'Shanassy three times Premier of Victoria between 1857 and 1861.
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