Sovereign Hill, Ballarat

While in Ballarat we spent a full day as tourists.

First visit was to the Gold Museum (as it opened earlier than Sovereign Hill)

On display were replicas of gold nuggets,


mining equipment,


and a model of a miner with his wheelbarrow full of his life's necessities.





Then there was the display of real gold nuggets



After two hours at the gold museum we walked across the road to Sovereign Hill


Here we found miners' tents set up as they would have been in the gold rush years,


people dressed in "period costume", as was our waitress,


horse and cart rides available,


in fact we had stepped back in time.


One show we attended was the pouring of a $160,000 gold bar (at today's prices).





At 1:30 we went underground on a guided mine tour


Down to the mine via a cable car.


A selection of what we saw was, where the men went for "smoko"


our guide demonstrating various mining techniques used in the "old days"


and finally we got a ride back to our transport to the top.



So of course the next thing to do was to have a go at panning for gold ourselves.


1. Dig deep...remember, gold is heavier than sand so it will have sunk deep.


(get a few very helpful pointers from the expert on hand)


2, 3, etc..wash and scrape the excess away and if you're lucky you will see a few specks of gold.
The said specks of gold can be stored in a bottle of water available for $1 from the nearby store. (generally, the bottle of water is worth more than the few specks of gold that most visitors find!)

And so we also have a few specks of gold


(hope you can see them)

Werribee

Whilst visiting a friend from Te Mata, now living on the outskirts of Melbourne, we visited the Mansion in Werribee.




The grounds are huge (to say the least). The man made lake was picturesque.


A short drive away we stopped for a look at the colours in the banks of the Werribee River

The Great Ocean Road revisited

Our travels then took us to Nelson, where Brandt tried again for fish. The Australian fish just don't seem to want to take his bait. From there we returned to Warrnambool as we wanted to visit the shipwreck museum.

While at Robe we met people who lived at Koroit. They invited us to stay on their property.....with the bonus of a flight with Brian in his Auster mark 5d aeroplane which was built in 1944 and completely rebuilt in 1988. Brian has owned it for 11 years






He took us for a wonderful flight over the coastline


over the Bay of Islands


and up to the twelve apostles





It was fantastic to be viewing this spectacular scenery again. Seeing it from the air put another perspective on the beauty and wonder of it all.

We also flew to Port Fairy. Griffith Island looked large from above


It didn't seem that big when we walked around it.

Brian offered Brandt the opportunity to fly the plane





I have to be honest and say that was the only time during the hour and a half that there was any turbulence!

It was a lovely flight, but the time came when we had to put the plane to bed and move on.

Dartmoor

On leaving Robe we were looking to free camp near Mt Gambier. The first choice was boarded off, second choice had no facilities and looked like a truck stop, third choice was also closed, so we pushed on a further 35km to a free camp at Dartmoor. We had to turn off the Princes Highway and drive about a km to this site. Wow! As we drove through the little township we were amazed to see one side of the street lined with tree stump sculptures. We would never have seen these had we stuck with our original plans.


The Dartmoor Memorial Streetscape was officially opened on ANZAC Day 2003. The spectacular carvings were completed by chainsaw Sculptor Kevin Gilders. The carvings are on butts of (originally) nine trees, in a section of the Avenue of Honour within the town. These Atlantic Cedar trees were planted on 7th September 1918 to commemorate WW1 servicemen and nurses from Dartmoor and district.

In consultation with families of the veterans, trees identified as dangerous were lopped and carved with suitable images and themes.


The nurse


Sad news


At arms


Three services - navy, army, air force


Over the top. - a digger climbing from the trench


R.I.P.


The parting - being farewelled by wife and child


The view looking down the street.
Also in the village green three more stumps have been carved





and


We are sure glad we detoured a little way into Dartmoor.