Eureka Day 4 Bendigo

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 7^th 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.

Eureka Day 3 Ballarat to Bendigo. The best laid plans of mice and men.

Eureka Day 3 Ballarat to Bendigo. The best laid plans of mice and men.

The plan was to leave for the train station with enough time to catch the bus and then explore the city of Bendigo for the entire afternoon. My plans did not work out quite like that at all as I did have little problems and I would not call them huge, but it would mean my movements would be restricted to the local area instead of being able to go far and wide.

I had some biscuits for a pre breakfast snack with my morning coffee and I was wanting to leave after 830am for my bus. I was feeling slow due to muscles being sore from all the walking I had been doing and really was not wanting to walk into town with the bag on my back. I don’t think I could walk up one more hill as my body might not want to try that at all. Once checked out I asked the lady to get a taxi for me and for some reason the system wouldn’t connect to the taxi service. It took several tries for the lady to get hold of the taxi and order one for me. It came alright and the guy was talkative, which didn’t bother me too much at all. Once at the train station I ordered the coach to Bendigo as I knew it would be around an hour and half trip. Before I got near the bus I had a sandwich from a local shop and the bread was a little stale. I was hungry so didn’t complain that much as it was food in my belly.

The trip on the bus was pretty uneventful and I did see more than I usually do. We did pass the Ballarat old cemetery and got a good view of some brick silo towers that I have no idea what they were, but they did get my interest. I could have walked anywhere in town and maybe not see everything I was wanting to see. Shock, horror I did not have my nose in the book the entire time I was on the bus. I was looking out of the window the entire time. We did not pass through the town of Clunes as we took the backroads and avoided the town along with several other bigger ones that could have been interesting to ride through. I realised at one stop that we were supposed to be wearing seatbelts and I had not noticed there were any at the seat. I learnt something when I got off the bus at Bendigo and found it really was cold there. Finding where I was wanting to go was really easy, easier than Ballarat and I never got lost once finding the hostel. At the door I found I could not check in until 5pm and no one was there to let me in so I could leave my bag somewhere. I waited for around 40 mins after knocking and one phone call before wandering off into the town. I found a pie shop for lunch at the Bendigo mall along with a coffee. I did a short touristy walk through the Pall Mall area as I had a heavy bag and could not really go very far. Once I found Maccas I stopped for a coffee and stayed there for several hours reading my book while charging my phone with my zenbook.

After my long stay in Maccas and most likely becoming part of the furniture I headed back to the hostel and it was still closed for the day and I had around an hour to wait. I rang the guy on a whim and got hold of him. He told me the code to get in and I sat in one of the rooms waiting for his arrival. Once he came I sorted out where I was staying and found there were not that many people at all in the hostel and I could count them on one hand. I had Subway for dinner and sorted out my washing though it will be cold so some of it will dry outside and several items are inside to dry as there was no dryer. The owner might be a nice guy, but I don’t think I would stay here on my next trip to the city. I would hate to imagine what it would be like in the middle of summer instead of winter. I was a little cold, but not too cold. After the washing I walked outside with just a tshirt and no jumper, but I doubt I could do this tomorrow morning as I would be frozen solid. Today was cloudy with no rain, but there was plenty of fog on the road and a local church in Bendigo was covered in the thick fog, which tells you how cold it was. The strange thing was that at night there was no fog at all and it was light up like a Christmas tree. Tomorrow when it comes I will be running around with a pie or to in town. I want to visit a historic cemetery and do a bit more in town like catch the tram if it is not too costly or do a mine tour.

Day 2 Eureka – Ballarat.

Day 2 Eureka – Ballarat.

After a good nights sleep I wanted to get up early so I could take a wander around Ballarat before meeting a friend to have coffee at the museum in Eureka. I did have leftover pizza for breaky and I had to wait for daylight as 7am there was none at all. I had to have a look online to see what time sunrise was as at home the sun was usually shining.  Once I seen light through the curtains I knew it was time for me to leave.

One thing I wanted to look for was the Sturt street gardens or park. The Titanic memorial bandstand was something I wanted to take a pic of as it was something to do with the Titanic. The gardens was along Sturt street and I found it would be a long way to walk. I had no idea where I was supposed to be and walked past the Ballarat Hospital a beautiful building before I asked Mr Google who told me I was going in the wrong direction, but I was getting a nice view of some gardens. I have never seen one city with so many monuments of anything in the one small area.  They seem to like dedicating everything including finding Gold, but I was impressed. Time was running out and I was wanting o visit the old cemetery before going back into town.

I had been near the cemetery the day before or so I had thought. What I was thinking was a short walk was actually a little longer than I thought and a friend on Facebook had told me there was a cemetery where the people from the stockade had been buried. It was further out of town, but turns out it was the cemetery I had been looking at visiting. I learnt that when I arrived out the front that we both had been talking about the same location. The cemetery was known as the old cemetery and I learnt why. Both soldiers and diggers from the Eureka Stockade were dedicated with memorials. Many people were from different denominations were buried there including a small area for the Chinese including what I think was where they were cremated. There is an orientation building at the cemetery where it gives you the story about the Eureka Stockade and the cemetery itself. Gold had been found when burying someone and graves were 11 feet deep so other family members can go in the same grave. Could be why some of the headstones have two names on them. I needed to leave, but not before taking a shot of a postie bike where the postie had gone to the loo in the cemetery. I thought it would be funny with the graves nearby and the bike.

I had to head towards the Museum of Australian Democracy where I was going to meet a lady who I knew from Facebook for coffee. I thought I would be on time, but the area was further than I thought and I kept finding things that caught my attention. I was walking quickly and was just a touch later to the museum than I had predicted. The museum did seem smaller than I thought it was from the outside. I did meet Theresa outside and we went to the cafe with her friend and had lunch with coffee. I had a pie and it was a nice pie while we chatted and had coffee. Afterwards I went into the museum and I wanted to see the actual Stockade flag. There are parts that are missing as people had souvenired some over time. The rest of the museum was interactive and all about the different parts of democracy including the psychology of it all like making associations with something like colours going cloud, polar bear and then cow. Cow was the odd one out as we would associate the colour white. Bob Brown was in another talking about how to deal with politicians like learning to discuss with them the problems you have with certain issue and also the media. I learnt the media is not your friend no matter how you push them there are usually different sides to the story that they will chase. Also make your campaign to be different that will get peoples attention. The centre piece was all about the different issues of Australia’s history from the Eureka stockade, Suffragette movement and the White Australia policy. I did find it interesting and there were other parts that included censoring books including Hitler’s book and the feminist movement too. I had heard a few talks about this museum and to actually visit made me happy.

The rest of the afternoon meant I would be taking a wander towards Barkley Street as I had seen a monument near the skate park. One of the postcards with a piece of the flag had a picture of a monument about the Eureka Stockade and was a short walk from the museum. There were canons and a plinth I think it is called. It was part of the list I had seen at the cemetery and I had been to several parts of the Eureka trail. Another was the location of Bentley’s Hotel where someone had been killed and started the uprising or was one of the leading causes to the uprising.  The monument I had seen earlier was about gold being discovered and I wanted to get something to eat at a maccas that had pictures of early Ballarat. I did even see an old bellow in the corner and there was leadlighting in the doors too. The only problem I did have was that it was getting dark. I didn’t want to be anywhere on dark as I would have problems finding my way home. Sovereign Hill signs were what I was following and did stop on the way to look at poverty point and the statue of Sir Henry Bolte outside the gold museum. I was spent and sore from my long day walking around the city. I enjoyed myself so far on this trip. Tomorrow I head towards Bendigo and I somehow end up on the gold train and that town has active mines as well.  Ballarat does too though I think I have learnt my lesson about living so far away from the central part of town as I am far from nearly everything except for Pizza Hut.

Eureka Day 1 Gold Coast to Melbourne and Ballarat

Eureka Day 1 Gold Coast to Melbourne and Ballarat

I am calling this trip to Victoria Eureka as one of the locations I am heading to is Ballarat where I will be heading to first. There are places like the Museum of Australian Democracy and Sovereign Hill. Today is the day that I fly to Melbourne. The weather at home is cold and I have heard that Melbourne and regional Victoria is going to be even colder and wet as well. I do have warm clothes, but not sure if they will be warm enough. We will have to take the chances and see what happens. I was at the airport an hour before the flight. I was looking at what I thought was the pre dawn light on the horizon, but it was actually the reddy haze of an aircraft at its gate. Yes sure I was on the western side so it would have been sun down not sun rise.

The plane ride to Melbourne was bumpy and was really nice to be in the air again. I miss going to parts unknown. The plane even landed 10 mins early and had to wait for a gate. Several passengers were told off sternly by the hostess for opening the overhead lockers before the seatbelt sign had been turned off. I am not sure if they understood her, but everyone had been told before hand. Dont get on the bad side of those ladies. I did have the idea that I would miss the 10am train and would take the 11am to Ballarat. The bus arrived quicker than expected and Southern Cross had been revamped since I had been there last time. I could walk undercover to get my ticket instead of walking to the far end of the station. No idea if this was one of the many changes but I hadn’t been to this area since around 2006. I had been to Melbourne more recently as that, I only knew of the ticketer on the far end on the corner. I now have my very own myki card and have no idea how to use it other than scan it. I was able to get on the 1008am train to Ballarat with a minute to spare. I headed to train on platform 7B and found i should be on platform 7A. I tried running with a 14 kg bag and I may have made it, but I was very exhausted and out of breath from that. I didn’t have time to get a drink either so have to suck it up. Melbourne is cloudy and chilly, but I do like the briskness of the weather.

The train ride was very uneventful and I even got a visit from the ticket inspector though I did happen to be at the very front of the train and never moved until I arrived in Ballarat. I had been exhausted when I jumped on, but feeling energised once I got off. I was lucky to have the street directory I had bought the day before or else I would have gotten completely lost. Actually I did get lost and misread the map and went as usual in the opposite direction to where I needed to go. It dawned on me I had not passed several streets I was looking for. I checked at a roundabout and found if I turned left down the street I could have visited the old cemetery. Something I had on my list. I still don’t know why I had walked the wrong way at all when I had in fact looked at the map at the train station and again while wandering the wrong way.

For some the architecture could be considered to be porn as there are so many older buildings in the town. I got to get a better look on my walk back and then through the city centre. Some of the buildings look interesting like the old Colonial hotel and also the Town Hall. I did cross there as I thought it would be best to go over that way. The funny part was I walked down a street I thought I was following on my street directory. Nope it was a big hell no as I seen the Federation university and walked in the opposite direction. I was actually meant to walk the other way, luckily I was wondering why a street was changing its name. I did find there were similar named streets like west and East although I an pretty sure there was Armstrong and Anderson. After a bit of a walk and uphill to Sovereign Hill I was able to find exactly where I was staying. The lady at reception gave me a look when I told her I had walked all the way from the train station. The hostel room I found was unavailable, but I got an upgrade to a room with my own everything and a huge bed. I was very happy to have this and I did also get tickets to Sovereign Hill including the show afterwards. I later found that the show did not include the dinner, but that didn’t worry me too much. I ended up with a late lunch. The park was interesting and does show what life would have been like during the 1800s with some shows though I missed a few of those except for the Gold smelting, which I was surprised when it was cooled with water and you could handle something that was several minutes before burning hot.

I didn’t realise but some of the things in the shops you could buy that were actually made there. I did like some of the products as the metal ware was excellent and i did buy some. I wont buy a top hat for $200 though as I have no need for those or mens handkerchiefs in my top pocket.  Later on the Show Blood on the Southern Cross was the story about the Eureka Stockade. I thought it would involve more people, but really there were disembodied voices from tents which light up when someone was talking. I didn’t know the story of Eureka other than parts of the story and need to do some reading up on it. I can see why people in the government might be worried attending events where the flag is flown though, but people have other ideas about the meaning regardless. The night was full of school kids who were little and loud. Doesnt help when you use the loos and its a single toilet and they think crowding the walkway will get them in quicker, but at least they move when you tell them firmly. I cant remember being that loud and annoying, but they were kids and I enjoyed myself regardless of what was going on. I do remember not having enough money to buy something and one kid didn’t have enough, but the shop keeper was nice and let him have something. Not big though, but I thought that was nice. Tomorrow I will be heading into the city of Ballarat to explore what is in town.