The 115 km drive from Melbourne to BALLARAT was uneventful and we pulled into a campground on the Melbourne side of BALLARAT at about 5.00pm. BALLARAT is a city about the size of New Zealand’s HAMILTON. It was built on gold mining, and is well known for its’ ‘Sovereign Hill’, a suburb of the town which has been preserved and developed as a replica of the way BALLARAT was during the gold rush days. It had been high on our list of ‘must do’s since we had first planned our Aussie trip.
One of its attractions was that you could pan for gold. Cameron was busting to get there and couldn’t stop visualizing what he was going to do with the millions of dollars worth of gold he was going to find.
Wednesday morning was spent with school work and domestic duties, and planning our attack on how best to see the many attractions the city had to offer. We also had to get to a dentist, as during our Tassie trip, Cameron had lost a filling, and we thought the quicker it got fixed the better.
So first on the list was a trip to the visitor centre to find a dentist who could fit us in within the next two or three days. As always, the staff at the visitor centre were more than helpful and we soon had the phone numbers of half a dozen dentists. The first one had a vacancy in about 3 weeks, the second advised us they were booked for 12 months ahead, but the third had had a cancellation and could see us at 3.30 that afternoon. Perfect.
With a couple of hours to fill in, we decided to find the generator shop and see what they had to offer. It turned out to be a motorcycle shop that also stocked Yamaha generators. They were more than helpful and after half an hour we had bought our new generator. A 2.00 kW Yamaha which they just happened to have on special, down from $2150 to $1950. Although we had paid $350 more than the Kipor, we were more than happy. It was quieter, lighter, more economical, and most importantly, started on the first pull.
After a bit of a look around town it was off to the dentist. Half an hour later we staggered out. Cameron under the weight of two new fillings, and us under the weight of a $340 bill. No wonder medical insurance is such a popular pastime in Aussie.
We spent the rest of the afternoon checking out some of the magnificent old stone buildings lining the city streets, and the many shops related to the gold industry. Lots of nuggets displayed as they had been found. The more gold Cameron saw, the stronger became his ‘Gold Fever’. He just couldn’t believe he was actually looking at real gold, and couldn’t wait to get to Sovereign Hill to starting finding his own.
Thursday was the big day, and after the usual morning’s school work, it was off to Sovereign Hill. What an experience. It more than lived up to our every expectation. Those of you that have been there will agree I’m sure. Too much to see and do to list here, but some of the highlights for us were first of all the gold panning, and the thrill of seeing those tiny flecks of gold appear in the bottom of your pan, a horse and buggy ride through the entire village, watching the various street scenes re-enacted by people dressed in period costume, and a demonstration on spoked cart wheel making, starting from turning down a sizable log to make the hub, right through to the final fitting of the steel rim. For me this was an absolutely fascinating process to experience.
Apart from the gold panning, the highlight for Cameron was watching a demonstration of a Gold Ingot being poured from its molten state, into the mould, and then watching it get cooled down and turning into solid gold. After it had cooled down sufficiently, Cameron was selected to come forward and hold the newly formed ingot, weighing 3kg, and valued at $140,000. Unfortunately our camera decided at that very time to have a flat battery, so we couldn’t record it. Never mind, I’m sure the memory of that moment will stay with him for a long time.
Our trip down a mine was also brilliant, and included a holographic display of the instance when the second largest gold nugget ever found, was uncovered in the mine face. This actually happened in a mine about 100 meters from where we were viewing the replay. We finally left Sovereign Hill with our vial of panned gold, just as they were closing the gate. What a fantastic experience.
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