Beechworth is one of Australia�s best preserved �gold rush� town from the 19th century gold mining boom days, located about a 2.5 hrs north-east drive from Melbourne. The National Trust of Australia has classified over 30 buildings, some built of honey-coloured granite, as heritage buildings to be preserved. Visitors can dine in a stately former bank, visit the powder magazine, and wander through an evocative cemetery of Chinese goldminers who never returned to their ancestral land. The infamous or famous bush-ranger Ned Kelly, depending on how you look at it, was also once imprisoned as a 16 year old teenager at the Beechworth Gaol, which apparently pushed him towards the other side of the law � and the rest is history like they say.