Ballart Gold Mine

There is a town 90 minutes away from our house called Ballarat. It was a gold mine way back when.

 We spent the whole day there last Saturday. The weather was hot and beautiful. This is a shot of the China camp side of the town. We went there during the last hour of our visit.

 This is a shot of Main street. I love the way it is laid out with the boardwalks and the false store fronts.

 I love this trough. It makes me think of Bonanza.

 We went to a show in the Victoria Theater later in the day.

 There were at least two of these coaches riding around town. The horses left not so little piles of you-know-what all over the roads.

 This man gave a great presentation on how Australia came to be colonized. It began with convicts brought over from England. He gave a weapons demonstration and when he shot off this gun I was very glad I had plugged my ears.

 This was one part of the fire engine. It held the hose and the other part held the water trough and the pump.

 Beautiful little church.

 We bought tickets for a 45 minute underground tour of the gold mine. We went down 110 feet below the earth. We weren't allowed to use flash photography and my camera couldn't gather enough light to take a decent picture. We learned about how the miners went from using a hammer and rod method to make a hole deep enough to put dynamite inside to blow more rock away to using a pneumatic drill instead. We heard how loud the drill was and even with my ears plugged it was crazy loud. The miners lost their hearing in only a short time when using that drill. We also learned that gold was not what was being mined but quartz rock instead. Very small amounts of gold were found in tons of quartz.

 This is part of the pump that keeps the mine open for tours.

 I love these dresses. There were more dresses on display in the window but the reflection was so great I couldn't take a decent picture of them.

 This is the chandelier in the Victoria Theater. We sat in the balcony to watch Little Red Robin Hood.

 The man and woman in the middle are the owners of the playhouse and are disagreeing on what play is being put on. She wants to do Little Red Riding Hood and he wants to do Robin Hood. He finally concedes to her but really just puts the character of Robin Hood into the Little Red Riding Hood story. It was great fun to watch.

 This is the candy maker. This is where all the candy sold at Sovereign Hill is made. At this demonstration he was making anise seed candy. We went to the candy shop and bought a mixed bag of boiled sweets. My favorite are the raspberry candies.

 Back at the gold stream and the China camp. Gold is still found in this little stream. There are two stands to take your gold to and have it weighed. Of course, the most anyone finds is little specks of gold. The boys found several and were given a small vial of water to keep the specks in.

 These next two pictures are of what miners tents would have looked like. Very small living space and you better get along with your tent-mate.

 I love the old-fashioned cook fire.

 Another shot of Main street.

 In the United States, when you are traveling down the highway, it is normal to come across signs that indicate deer crossings. Well, in Australia those signs indicate koalas and kangaroos.

 In Australia, distance is calculated my kilometers instead of miles so it was kind of fun to see a sign that gives you permission to go over 100.

 And the maximum speed allowed was even higher.