Gold in the Hills

One thing about the Victorian countryside is that there is lots to get out and about and do. Touristy attractions are everywhere, just check out the Lonely Planet and see for yourself. Well OK then maybe once you get past the beaches and mountains there is just a lot of countryside. Interestingly Mad Max, The road warrior, was filmed in Victoria. I am, of course, talking about the first film, Victoria is not known for its apocalyptic scenery. Anyway if you look beyond all the above you find some gems amongst the smaller villages and towns dotted around the state. Once such gem is to be found out near Ballarat, north west of Melbourne. The town itself was one of the centre’s of the 1800’s gold rush in Australia and has a past linked with prospecting and violence. More about the violence later.

Sovereign hill is a huge outdoor live action museum celebrating all the aspects of 1850’s Australian culture at the heart of the gold rush. Features of the museum include being able to descend under ground deep into the mines and experience the feeling of being in a gold mine.

Members of the museum dress up and walk around the centre of town, bringing an air of authenticity to proceedings. The tourists for their part wander round, camera in hand, completely removing any authentic feel. Perhaps we were unlucky, the day was overcast, but there were few people present who were giving me the feeling of authentic. I am probably being a little harsh, after all there was the firing of a real oldy worldly rifle, after extensive H&S talks and a cursory check of medical certificates. The most shocked were the two goats who looked as though they were going to have a heart attack. Shops sold authentic curry flavoured pies and hand made produce including sweets, yes I did, and candles, yes she did. The biggest draw though is the gold, we saw a ingot being poured from molten gold, the guy doing this was shown on a travel program the following week and did the same thing, even telling the same lame jokes. Eventually we arrived at the panning creek, a small rivulet that contains real gold you can actually pan for. Don’t get excited here, we believe that in the morning a few sand sized grains of gold are added to the river bed for tourists to “discover” using authentic (that word features a lot in this article)methods of gold finding. Basically swirl the riverbed round in a flat wok sized pan whilst staring into the detritus to see if you can spot a microscopic glitter of gold in the bottom. If found then carefully remove said grain being very careful not to drop it back into the river, you don’t stand a chance of finding one twice. Alternatively you can pan for about five minutes before letting out a loud cry of excitement, just to see who looks. Everyone looks ,for the record, although I believe that this is frowned upon.

Even down in the mines the gold is present, well actually plaster casts of the nuggets painted gold and hidden behind impressive, if slightly overkilled, security. Who is going to steal a replica of a nugget found 150 years ago, now probably forming a part of the Australian Reserves, is an idiot but I suppose the vaults add to the authen..... I cannot do it to you.

Over the road is a gold museum showing more finds from the area, again cast in plaster and painted and also again behind impressive looking vault doors. This museum does actually hold a lot more gold and is nearly interesting but does have a groovy shop, selling gold granules, probably reclaimed from the creek next door. An experience, the real surprise though is that people actually buy membership to the town so that they can come back for more! They are so enthralled by the experience that they need more time to enjoy it! Check out the website and see what other things they offer as I really am not doing the place justice and I have heard that in the future companies will be able to sue people for blog entries so better not put it down too much. Apparently the night show is a must, and you can stay in the town hotel or even have a meal, exciting.

It does revolve around the violence I spoke of earlier, apparently Ballarat was the location where men swore an oath on Australian soil to a Flag that was not BRITISH (The bastards). High taxes and conditions for miners was the underlying cause, the flag was the southern cross (Blue with whites stars) and the men were executed in a dawn raid by those heartless British. They re-enact the wonderful spectacle at night in one of the worlds most expensive interactive displays (I made the last bit up).

Long time no write - Naughty me

I cannot believe it has been two months since I last wrote in the blog. That is a bit rubbish of me to be honest. Will improve the situation.

So what has been happening in Australia you ask? Well I have very sad news to report, St Kilda (The Saints) did not win the AFL grand final, perhaps this has contributed to my lax efforts on the blog! The Saints finally made it to the final against the other biggest team in Victoria this year, the dreaded Cats (Geelong), the two teams were number one and two in the table and both had been undefeated for 14 games when they first met. Everyone in St Kilda was hoping for the same result in this match as the previous one, St Kilda won in the final few seconds with a single goal. In order to watch the match we had selected a local bar and were firmly ensconced in said bar at 12:00 on the big day, despite the match not starting until 2pm. We had arrived even before the big screen had been set up but we were determined Saints fans and there would be no stopping us, we had the choice of where to sit (as we were the first people in the bar) and picked a select spot, not too far from the bar with good sight of the screen and access to the toilets. The day was rainy and the match turned out to be a slippery mess of football. Both sides had problems controlling the wet ball but St Kilda were winning the quarters and at each break were going into the dressing rooms ahead in points. The fans in the room, and the pub was packed for the match, were going crazy. Food was being served by the bar, freebies abound, beer was flowing and everyone was looking at the score and hoping this year would be the year St Kilda brought home the silverware. The final quarter started as the match had gone on with St Kilda maintaining a slim lead over the cats. Then in the final seconds of the quarter the cats drew even, the match went into overtime and a silence descended on the pub. It’s one of those silences where you can just tell something terrible is going to happen, like in a horror movie when the car runs out of petrol or somebody goes down into the cellar... Sure enough the cats pulled a remarkable fight-back and quickly had a goal over the saints, head bowed and were shaking when they pulled another stunner and another goal was scored. The games was over, even though the final klaxon had not been sounded we all knew that the match had been won. Both teams deserved to be in the final and this was the best final of years but in the end there could be only one winner, this year that winner was Geelong!

The mood in St Kilda that day was a little depressing to say the least but we are all convinced that next years flag will be ours.

Another thing that happened around this time was the Melbourne Royal Show. This is a agricultural show where farmers and producers around Victoria get to show off their wares and promote what they are doing in Victoria. The highlight of the show is the showbags which are stuffed full of sweets and simple toys. Children of all ages spend days selecting which bags they wish to buy on the day and as you walk round all you can see are stalls selling the bags, they apparently represent value for money although I was not sure who had done the valuing. Of course, wishing to get into the mood I opted for a St Kilda AFL bag and s sour sweet bag. The day was surprisingly sunny and we required several beers t maintain a cool demeanour. One spectacle we really wanted to catch was the pig racing and diving, apparently the pigs jump of a platform. Sounds very exciting and must be as we tried to get into two separate shows and they were both packed. We decided to watch some horses doing some tricks and then leave the children to the endless supply of sugar.
Coming soon (promise) Gold in the hills and a trip to the bushfire towns.

P.S. The temperature today reached 36 in the city as a new heatwave takes hold of Melbourne and we have now entered the bushfire season. Thanks goodness for aircon!

Dubbo to Melbourne - The ride part 2

Dubbo had the distinction of having two main roads and therefore an intersection which made it pretty much the largest town we had driven through on the journey. Dubbo also had the distinction of hosting the under 16’s state rugby finals and was, our taxi driver informed us, packed to the rafters at the moment. We would be lucky to find anywhere to eat tonight, he also advised us despite not being asked.

We had pulled into Dubbo and registered in the Motel, a chain of Motels specialising in fitting as many people into the smallest possible space. Although this was also a very cheap Motel. The room consisted of a double bed with a single positioned on the wall above it. A small sorry looking TV hung in the corner and there was a tiny shower and toilet. Ah home from home, but we were not here for luxury, this was just the designated stop over. We decided to get ourselves a quick steak and a couple of beers then off to bed. With an early start we did not wish to be hung-over, so we ordered the taxi.

Despite the taxi drivers warning that the town was packed we walked into the local steakhouse, above the local pub, and found ourselves in an entirely empty room. The town maybe full of families with under 16 rugby players but apparently they had all brought sandwiches. We sat and ate two steaks then retired down to the pub. The food was OK I have to say and served with a smile.

Downstairs the scene was similar if a little bizarre; rugby (not under 16’s but full blown hulks) was playing to an almost empty room. In the back yard a band was setting up so we figured the place would be full soon. After a couple of beers the band started playing, a selection of Bon Jovi and country tunes, much to the delight of the solitary guy sitting in the third row. He had a private concert so why he chose not to sit at the front is anyone’s guess. The pub continued to fill and we stayed for a few more drinks, people watching as you do. This was my first real insight into Bogan culture, backwater towns with nothing much to do on a weekend but pop down to the pub and get drunk until you either fall over or pull a sheila. A group of girls, obviously on the pull judging by the dresses they were nearly wearing - not a pretty sight, decided to sit down next to us as they scoped out the room for talent. I have to say that I am grateful for not being official talent in Bogan land, I have no mullet and certainly was not wearing a flannel shirt. They moved away from us leaving their handbags and one solitary member of the group. Now when a girl is left alone with the bags you can guarantee that she is ugly or too drunk to pull. This one was the former and as she was alone decided that she would talk with the nearest people, us!

In short she was from Newcastle and as such way better than anyone from Dubbogan, and she was educated being a primary school teacher! I suggested that she use her obvious education to travel the world and to my surprise she agreed. Unfortunately she did not understand my intention that she do this straight away, as in now. Couple more beers then grab a taxi and bed.

The next morning we set off on the second part of the journey. First port of call is the radio observatory at Parks. This was the setting for the film “The Dish” starring that bloke from Jurrasic Park. Well it is a big dish, similar to Jodrell Bank in England. This was where the moon landing was transmitted from, actually I found out recently that this is not where the landing was transmitted from but it was the setting about a film about the moon landings. Confused! You will be. As we pulled up to the telescope I noticed that there were a bunch of Kangeroos’ standing round eating the grass. So I am one of the few people to jump out of a car and point a camera in the opposite direction of the huge white radio dish at parks!

Soon we were back in the car driving the endless miles through New South Wales. It is actually quite a boring drive to be honest. Scrub slowly changing to fruit plantations and vineyards. Pretty scenery but nothing very exciting. This wasn’t the outback experience I was expecting. Having worked on stations (Cattle ranch) ten years ago I had driven through some of the inhospitable outback. Four hours on a sandy track with no sign of civilisation to get to a small hut from where we would start building fences round stations that couldn’t be driven through in a day. The sun beating down on our little ute, water was essential and when we did get a flat tyre we would wait for the sun to die a little before attempting to change the wheel. This was real outback adventure. With serious risk of death due to snakes and heatstroke. In comparison a drive through NSW was a scenic detour full of civilised towns. This does remind me of a funny thing that happened once. We were driving down a sandy track, at the side of a four wire fence, when an emu decided to run out in front of the ute. Once in front of us it then decides that it will run away from us down the track, so we follow the emu carefully keeping the speed down to let it get away. After a couple of hundred meters the bird decides to leave the track, by turning in the direction of the fence. Now the fence is pretty solid with four thin wires strung between posts, the Emu runs into the fence, at which point it’s neck and legs fold back as the body of the birds flies between two of the wires. Like a large feathery snowball this object flies through the fence and lands on the other side. Out pop the legs and the Emu’s head and the dumb bird jumps up, visibly stunned by it’s ordeal. Then the bird starts to run away again, this time on the opposite side of the fence but still down the track as though we were going to run it over. Crazy animal but still one of the only times I have seen an Emu fly.

One thing about Australia that is quite funny is their love of big things, fibrecast mouldings of normal everyday objects, but BIG! Really big! They have the big banana, big strawberry and when we stopped for lunch there was the big Carp! A fish, by the side of the road, but two meters tall. Australians just love big things and as we ate fish and chips on the banks of the Murray river we sat next to one such big thing. They really serve no purpose what so ever but act as a tourist attraction for those people unfortunate to have to drive through the country. As far as ticking off the big things I am woefully underachieving, having only the big Carp and strawberry to my credit, but I am sure there are those touristy types who have a plethora of BIG things under their belt. Always makes for reliable photo opportunity. We missed the BIG guitar and BIG lime on our journey so I do not think this is going to become some kind of sad tourist attraction piece for me.

As we drove through Victoria I begin to get some sense of how big Australia really is. We had spent two days solid driving down through three states. If you look at a map of Australia and find Brisbane and Melbourne you will see just how little of the country we actually tackled, not very much at all. One day maybe we will get out and rive more of the country but for now my ass is numb and I really miss my little flat, and wife so we push on towards Melbourne. My faultless navigation skills manage to only get us lost once in the suburbs of Melbourne and we arrive in the evening. Tired, numb and having been on one of the longest dullest car journeys ever.

Final score was Kangaroo’s 18 Foxes 12, plus one lemur (that’s what it looked like anyway and a stick! Duncan mistook the stick for a lizard and we had to go back and see it).