Eureka Day 4 Bendigo
Today would be my first full day in the city of Bendigo and
my plans today I hoped I would not have any problems following and will see
what I could try to do. It was another cold morning and my clothes that I had
bought inside before going to bed were partially dry already though they would
need to dry for the rest of the day. I had one jumper outside that was still
wet and I would bring it in before I left. In an 8 bed room there was only the
two of us and my roomie did seem to vanish around 3am. I wasn’t worried in the
slightest as I was happy to get out and about.
The first plan was to get some food aka a pie from the local
bakery and some more cash as it was a little light on, but I did bandaids as I
had a blister that I didn’t want to get worse from any more rubbing. Then I was
off to the Bendigo cemetery, which I didn’t think was that long of a walk at
all. They did seem to be doing some work there and along the way there were
some really nice houses. There were some things that I had specifically wanted
to see in the cemetery like the Chinese cremation kiln though there was one in
Ballarat. The old chapel, which did look really nice and of course the Burke
and Wills memorial. Like in Ballarat with the postie bike, I seen something
funny as in a taxi parked in the cemetery so couldn’t resist getting photos. I
spent some time wandering around the cemetery looking at some of the unique
headstones that I did find. There were
some of the usual bishops including the first one in Bendigo, but there were
others in the area that were of significance like politicians along with people
who donated money in the early days to hospitals. Another person was Sir John
Quick who had something to do with founding the commonwealth of Australia. I don’t
know much about him, but he would be an interesting person. A name that had
poped up as being unusual and on the cemetery list was Queenie Victoria Bacon
as people had been named after royalty during certain time periods. One person
was a captain who had a large rock with an anchor to keep him anchored to one
area. Two monuments were in regards to two young people who had died during the
Duke of Edinburgh’s visit in 1867 when they were aboard the model ship the
Galatea. Another was an interesting headstone from a lady who died in 2012 that
attracted my attention once I had left the cemetery to make my way to town so I
could visit the mine.
According to my handy heavy street directory I could take a
new direction to visit the Deborah Gold Mine. I wanted to do the mine tour at
12.30pm and was hoping I would have enough time. I did follow some of the river
trail not that I really understood what it was about, but looking at a map
later in the day I found that it was a train that could take several hours and
did include another cemetery around an area in Kangaroo flats. I found the mine
as the path I took bought me out to where it was, but also the Beechworth
Bakery where I wanted a pie for lunch. A bushman’s pastie too before I headed
in for the mine tour. At the time I was able to get the mine tour, but also travel
on the local tram, which would be exciting. The mine tour I had selected was
one of the shorter tours as it would take around an hour. It was an experience
tour to give you a taste of what it was like to be in a mine. We were given
hardhats and lights before we went down. Other tours could take around 4 hours.
I never had a moments rest from walking from the cemetery to the mine. We were
shown the different equipment that had been used in mines and most of the words
came from Cornish miners like crib and cribbage. Crib means lunch, which is
Cornish. Candles were supposed to last 8 hours and you only got two. The
changing in technology meant you ended up with brighter lights. Much of what is
being used today uses compressed air like the drills which had changed. They used to just hammer into the rocks with a
drill bit and got all the dust into their lungs, which would become a cough
that would never go away until they had a drill that ran with water so the dust
would be mud. We were shown around some of the tunnels and shown how noisey the
equipment could be too. The guide told a story about how in WWII older miners
were used to dig a tunnel and they were later pulled out as gold had been found
deeper. Years later a new manager reopened that area to look around, but
thought to make another tunnel found gold just metres from where the other
tunnel actually was. If the miners had been left alone they would have struck
gold they had been heading to. Bendigo seemed to be the richest deposit of gold
in Victoria and the 7th largest in the world. This time for me was
unique as I had been to New Zealand wanting to see stampers at work, but I had
been the only one at the time for the tour and today I got to see stampers working
even if the rest of the group wanted to catch the tram instead. I was happy I
got to see this in action.
After having a little rest and my pie that I finally got to
eat, I did explore the surface of the mine. The good part was that there were
no kids who were tramping around the area getting into peoples way. They seem
to be doing that alot and could be more like bowling pins as you had to walk
through them. I had to stop for a coffee and that would take me to the time
where I could catch the tram for a ride. I was happy to sit and let the tram
take me to the other end of the tracks, which was Joss house. This location was
actually a temple for the Chinese. It is also the location of something that I don’t
know if I should be taking pictures of that was called Thales. I had promised
the tram driver that I would catch the last tram after I had a tour in Joss
house. I ended up going for a walk as I had been told about a headstone next to
the largest wooden church in the world or what it was thought to be. I knew
about the oldest wooden church in NZ, but this one no. I followed the tram
tracks and made a note while on the tram that I would visit the tramways museum
in the morning for a tour before heading off to go listen to a talk. It wasn’t a
short walk at all, but I didn’t mind as I felt refreshed. The headstone was
located at the St Kilians and was the founder of the church, Reverend Henry Backhaus.
Another bit of wandering bought me to Rosiland Park, where before darkness fell
I climbed up the poppet head lookout. The view up there was pretty good and I
knew I would not have enough time to visit any o the other museums in the area,
but I was happy to be following the gold trail that I seemed to be following
when I was in New Zealand. I don’t know how far I walked, but I did get back to
the hostel after dark.
It seems the hostel owner was having some problems and from
the sounds of it he has sold the hostel. I don’t know if this means that it
will still be a hostel and it could have been lucky that I arrived when I did.
My clothes that I had bought inside in the morning were close to being completely
dry and it was getting a little cold too. I was exhausted and wanted to type up
what I had found. My phone was just about flat too, but I wasn’t too worried as
I had the key to the hostel even if it was open and my roomie seems to have
left. I don’t think the hostel owner has cleaned the room as the bed is still
as it had been left in the morning. At least it is all still clean.
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