A lush, English-style cricket ground is the last thing you'd expect to see in stubbled, drought-stricken western central Victoria. Nevertheless, here it is.

Aquilino Tinetti, a Swiss-Italian Australian of many generations standing, has created his own 'field of dreams' at Shepherds Flat, 10km (6.2mi) north of Daylesford. Nestled bizarrely amongst bald, sheep-nibbled hills is the centrepiece of Cricket Willow - a traditional, baize-green cricket oval, complete with whitewashed picket fence. The complex also houses a cricket museum, a bat factory and its own willow groves. The first English bat willow on the site (and in the country) was propagated from a cutting shipped to Test umpire Robert Crockett (a local) by English captain Archie McLaren in 1902.

The Daylesford Historical Society's Museum is one of those places that makes you thankful for local history nuts. A great chance to glimpse the Aboriginal and colonial past.

Not quite everything was lost in the holocaust of the Jajowurrong people: thanks to the work of men such as Edgar Morrison and F.G. Powell, documents and artefacts of the tribe, now housed in the E.S. Parker room at the Daylesford Historical Society Museum, have survived.

Mr Powell's finds, collected on his Mt Franklin property between 1950 and 1980, have been augmented by numerous other contributors. The collection boasts various hafted and hand-held stone tools, geometric microliths, and an axe, found at the Lar-ne-barramul lagoon, dating back more than two millennia.

It's easy to see why the Catholic Church bagged this former private residence when it came up for sale: it's comfortably the most beautiful spot in town.

Initially built as a private home for the (understandably flush) gold commissioner in the boom days of the 1860s, 'The Convent' occupies an enviable position on Wombat Hill, overlooking the town and surrounding countryside. Purchased by the Catholic Church in the 1880s, it was run as the Holy Cross Convent and Boarding School until its closure in 1973. From that date it languished until 1988, when the artist Tina Bankitsa bought it, inspired to create a haven for the arts. With a sensitive restoration, six acres of manicured European gardens, seven exhibition spaces and various retail and hospitality outlets, her vision has been immaculately conceived.