The Warrnambool line

Ride past Geelong and the country changes character entirely: stone walls, red gums and the long green sweep of the Western District. The Warrnambool service is Victoria's great slow train, and every stop is a town with a main street you can walk end to end.

Colac hugs a volcanic lake, Camperdown is all elms and clocktower, and Warrnambool itself puts you a level walk from Lady Bay, the breakwater and the southern right whales that calve off Logans Beach between June and September.

• Southern right whale nursery at Logans Beach (winter)

  From June to September mothers and calves rest in the surf metres from a purpose-built dune platform — one of the few places on earth you can watch a whale nursery from land.

• Lake Colac and the gateway to the Otways

  Victoria's largest freshwater lake sits at the edge of town, with a boardwalk foreshore and the green shoulder of the Otways rising behind it.

• Camperdown's avenue of elms and heritage clocktower

  A grand boulevard of century-old elms leads straight to the clocktower, and in autumn the whole street turns gold — a five-minute walk from the platform.

• Flagstaff Hill and the Lady Bay foreshore in Warrnambool

  Shipwreck history by day and a lantern-lit maritime village by night, all a short walk from Lady Bay's sheltered swimming beach and breakwater.