In 1900, Frederick McCubbin's wife, Annie had a chest infection and she was advised to recuperate in the clean mountain air of Mount Macedon. So, in the summer of that year, over the Christmas holiday period, the McCubbin family went to Mount Macedon, and, for a few weeks, rented a small cottage in Woodend. They purchased an English cottage named 'Dillon's Summer Residence' (later renamed 'Fontainebleau'), situated in a valley near the summit of the north side of Mount Macedon. However, his new home was too far from Melbourne for him to daily commute to the National Gallery of Victoria, and during the week, resided with his mother and sisters Wilhelmina and Helen at The Rose of Australia Hotel in Melbourne. He returned home at weekends and during school vacations and travelled by train to Woodend and transferred there to a wagonette for his home in Mount Macedon.
Woodend's supermarket Coles is adorned with four delightful murals: 'Golden Harvest', 'Morning Delivery', 'Welcome Break', and 'Picnic Races'. These paintings are clearly in the McCubbin style of works such as 'The Pioneer' that he painted whilst in Mount Macedon and is a major Australian art treasure.
The site of the defunct Woodend Produce Store may one day become a Woolworth supermarket. A formal planning notice was taped to the front window but that was taken down.
