Victoria ~ Ballarat
June 4-7, AUS Post 41
Up until our arrival in Ballarat, our glimpses into history came from looking at vacant buildings, grave markers and sign boards, or sometimes just a plaque near a patch of grass or a few scattered bricks or rocks to acknowledge a spot of significance.
Time Travel
Not knowing what to expect, we moved into a cabin at the caravan park just across from Sovereign Hill to stow our bikes and gear. From across the neighborhood rooftops surrounding the park, we could see a flag waving atop a wooden tower on the nearby hill, and headed that direction the next morning. Beyond the ticket booth, we passed through dimly lit rooms with illuminated sign boards, painting a picture of life in the 1800s. As we exited the darkened room, the descriptions and images came to life all around us - this was a living museum, an immersive experience, giving all ages an opportunity to understand a part of their Australian heritage.
The town covered the entire hillside, flanked by two mines and tent camp next to a creek for panning gold, called the “Diggings”. Although it felt like a movie set, throughout the town, there was not a single facade, everyone dressed in period clothes, and the shops as well as houses were open to guests. After walking along main street, we visited the blacksmith and working sawmill, where wheelwrights still build wooden wheels, not only for the wagons used onsite, but for local farms as well.
The museum also includes a school program for children to give them a real-life experience of simpler times. Before visiting the gold mines, we stopped into the hotel pub and talked with the “bar wench” fully immersed in her character and discovered that she first came here as a student and was now living out her childhood dream.
With so much to explore, we just made it on the last tour of the Quartz mine and then caught the last demonstration of the gold pour. Surprisingly, as the goldsmith held up the freshly minted gold bar stating its monetary value, before securely padlocking it away in a glass box next to his work bench - his parting words of the day - spoke of the irony of a mineral being so highly sought after and valued, when in reality, it has no wide-scale practical use or true worth. A frank history lesson still unlearned today.
Quartz Mine
“Kid”-Friendly Diggings
Images of the past, alive today - still reminding us we have many simple lessons yet to be learned.
Town Travel
After a full day of walking through history, we felt the need to explore the town of today from two wheels. Following the bike path around Lake Wendouree through colonial-styled neighborhoods and colleges, we were taken in by the amount of captivating architecture and monuments to the past.
Lake Wendouree
After all our exploring, it was a local brewery that brought us back to the present ~ reminding us of the breweries of home. While we cozied up to the fire in our colonial chairs and overstuffed pillows in the atrium, our host kindly offered us a freshly-baked loaf of sourdough bread to take with us. But not just any sourdough bread, this was made for the brewery with its mash by the 1816 Bakehouse in Ballarat. How could we say, no? Tucked under away in our backpack - we soon realized how well a hearty loaf will travel.
Gear Update
Another day was spent doing the unimaginable. With the help of YouTube, Nivaun carefully took apart the stitching holding the zipper pulls on our tent doors, replacing them with ones from our repair kit, and stitched them back up again - hopefully to last longer than the first ones. Feeling on a roll, he also whipped back together the tent stake bag which had been coming apart at the seams and tied up a few other loose ends. Nice job, Gear Guru!
In between, Nivaun was also now in conversation with our new TREK expert to find us a bottom bracket…fingers crossed!
