General News
8 July, 2025
From Paris to Hopetoun
“You didn’t come straight from Paris to Hopetoun, did you?”
That’s a question I often get asked — usually with wide eyes and a smile.
And of course, the answer is no.
There were many stops along the way, full of discovery, challenge and change, before we arrived here in this small Wimmera town that has become part of our life story.
My husband and I are travellers at heart.
We’re part of the baby boomer generation that, in the 1970s, set off with backpacks through India and Latin America.
After some intense years in Central America - particularly in El Salvador, where political unrest made life difficult - we moved to Spain, spending time in both the Canary Islands and Madrid.
Then, in 1986, we landed in Australia and made Melbourne our new home. We fell in love with the country almost instantly.
In Melbourne, I taught French through to VCE level.
I also worked as a tutor at Monash University, and later set up a language school where French was the main focus.
It was a vibrant little community - until COVID arrived and forced us to close the doors in 2020.
In April 2021, after 15 years living in Avonsleigh near Emerald in the Dandenongs, we made the decision to move to Hopetoun.
Why leave a leafy, almost enchanted landscape for one that’s drier, more rugged?
The answer is simple: we were looking for a central base - somewhere to return to between our travels around Australia in our caravan.
Hopetoun made sense, and it touched us in a quiet, subtle way.
It was a bit of a challenge at first.
I had hoped to continue teaching online, but the internet coverage wasn’t ideal.
Everything changed with the arrival of Starlink.
But above all, it was the sense of welcome that stayed with me.
Indeed, I’ll never forget our first Christmas in the Grampians, when it rained and rained... and rained.
Someone knocked on our tent to offer us - believe it or not - a hot cup of tea.
That simple gesture meant the world to us. Just like our very first visitor in Hopetoun, Ann, who came to the back door, saying, “That’s what you do with friends".
She brought us the Wimmera paper and a warm smile.
It was such a lovely introduction to country life.
Since then, every time we return to Hopetoun after a big loop around the country, we feel content.
I've grown to appreciate regional life more deeply: the Women’s Association, the garden club, familiar faces at the local IGA.
It’s a joy to be called by your first name - and to greet others by theirs: Faye, Carmen, Linda, Kevin, and many other kind faces whose names I don’t yet know.
You really do meet the whole town in one shopping trip.
Sometimes people think I’m just a visitor camping by the lake.
But the truth is, I’ve been living in Hopetoun for over four years now.
My accent is still here, but so is my heart.
Hopetoun is our base - the centre from which we continue exploring this vast, powerful Australian land.