Wednesday 23 March 2011
Ballarat is known to be something of a goldmine, as in a place where they mine gold or quartz as it really is, as quartz contains the gold, not always but here it does.
It was once an active quartz mine, as much of the ballarat area was, and i assume some still is. The idea is basically you mine the quartz, crush it and then use mercury over the dust to extract the gold and then melt it down make and ingot and they hey presto you are rich.
So Sovereign Hill was the name of the place, it’s very much a place built for tourists but on the site of an old mine and has everything as it was back in the end of the 19th century and early 20th, prior to WW1 when they all left the mines. We walked through a town (man made for tourists) as if we were back 100 years ago, old buildings selling old stuff, clothes, sweets etc and even kids learning with their slate boards. There is a lot to see and i could explain everything but that would take forever and i’m knackered.
We first visited the mine, down in an old train thing, down at about 40 degrees into the mine 100 ft below surface, all very civilised although the guide was a pompous showman. It was the usual tour, tunnels small, Cornish people, noisy, six days week, seven including religion and back breaking. Quite good fun and i felt i learnt something. Next stop was the actual pouring of an ingot of gold, pretty simple stuff really, all you need is gold and some pretty hardcore gloves, oven and tongs. End result a bar of gold, don’t really like gold, so not so exciting.
Lunch was next, usual stuff, sandwich, then on to the next bit. In fact you could pan for gold, i panned and panned and ending up winning some stones, pretty rubbish really but then again i don’t like gold so no loss. Next stop another little mine, had to wait for bloody school kids but then down i went, self guided tour, usual stuff, famous people, big nugget found, blah blah blah, came up it was raining.
Museum was completely rubbish, literally all it was centred round was Gold, don’t like gold so pretty boring. Anyway it is called Sovereign Hill in Ballarat and worth a look if you are in Australia.
Journey back to Tudor and Maria’s was tiring, not sure why but only took one hour but i was knackered. Anyway a lovely lamb tagine for dinner, may have thrown a girl or two in the pool (can’t remember). Lovely episode of South Park before dinner then bed.