I'm not exactly sure of what you want to plant but now's the time to plant deciduous fruit trees. Being in Vic you can grow apples, pears, nectarines, peaches, apricots, plums, figs and all sorts of nuts. All of these are readily available and most you can grow yourself from seed.

I direct sowed a peach last winter and it has grown to about waist high. I just pruned it a little today. I expect fruit the year after next ie about 18 mths away. You should have no trouble growing nectarines, peaches, apricots, walnuts, and almonds from seed of fruit you buy at the supermarket. The stone fruit need to be cold stratified for a period of time before they will germinate. If you put them in the fridge now they should be ok to sow in mid September.

European plums and figs can all be grown from cuttings. I've never had luck propagating Japanese plums from cuttings though.

Let us know what else you are interested in planting. There are others but the ones I mentioned should tolerate the conditions you mentioned above.

All good suggestions from Pepino. It really depends on what you like to grow. Edible stuff? Pretty stuff? I'm more for the edible type (surprise, surprise) and would go with fruit trees as well. They are easy to propagate and need only minimal care once established. Grapes shouldn't be too much of a problem either. They can be propagated by cuttings.
Just tackle one thing at a time. You don't have to plant everything at once. :)

hi antesoo

you can also grow citrus, which you can buy the plants one at a time, but you can try growing them from seed. I have grown seville oranges, blood oranges and lemons from seed.
you may be able to get cheaper, less mature plants via mail order. I ordered a black walnut tree which is only 20cm tall and it cost a fraction of the more mature trees you get from a nursery

happy gardening
Helen

Oak trees?

Slow growing but a great investment for your great grand children - all you need is to find an old oak tree and get a couple of buckets of acorns.

They don't need much care and once they shoot the rabbits and roos will be the only problem.

Anteso, first you want to plan to still be mobile and fit for garden until at least 80! : ) so you have 20 years. which is plenty of time to grow an impressive garden to relax in/under once you start to slow up after 80 : ). There are alot of trees that can grow in Victoria but where about are you exactly? somewhere dry suggests up North, or at least not along the South Coast. Well either way you should be able to grow most Stone fruits, Citrus, Avocados and White sapotes for a start and you should definatly be able to have fresh fruit year round within 6 years. But what are are you in?

Thank you everybody for all the helpful hints. I am situated near the southern edge of the Mallee in the Wimmera so we have lots of hot summer winds and perennial lack of water which makes gardening a little more difficult.The climate is Mediterranean with frosts added. I am ordering three olives from garden Express and when they get going I'll have a go at taking some cuttings to strike.If anyone has done the same with apricots or Almonds I'd be glad of any hints.I am not a good striker I fear. Pots dry out far too quickly here.I am beginning a new phase in my life and yes Nicefrog I do plan on having a fit and active 20 years ahead of me so I don't mind longer term plantings at all.What I don't like is failures..I feel I waste such a lot of plantings because I try to beat the climate and it always wins.Will I never learn?Thanks again to everyonefor sharing.
Soo

So what is that somewhere near Beulah? I see that you can grow good Orange trees there when I was driving past not long ago, You can grow heaps of Apricots from seeds easily you just slightly break them open remove the kernel and plant in a warm pot, almost instant Apricot tree. Then you can graft it later on which is also pretty easy with Apricots, I'm guessing Almonds might be able to grow in the same way, but Peaches don't seem happy about that and need some time in the fridge