Day 145 – Digging Victoria

Up with hotel continental breakfast before heading out down the road

Sovereign Hill is a tourist hotspot in the area and preserves and shares the history of gold in Aussie

There are horse-drawn carriages trotting round and people working here dressed in 1800s attire and doing talks about the time

We hear from an officer/soldier about the corrupt nature of these individuals and how people fled this area to get rich

1851 started the Gold Rush era for Ballarat

Police would often find any member of the public and find any reason to arrest them and knick their goods, including rifles, or collect a fine with them not having a gold panning licence, where they could gain a hefty commission from this

The phrase “to give a good pommelling” comes from someone hitting another person over the head with the handled end of a Saber (which is called a pommel)

He prepares and fires a musket for a large group – it does make a big bang

We head to sort out a coffee but it takes us a couple goes around here as all the buildings are in old fashioned style

With two flat whites, we wonder about before finding a little demonstration in the blacksmiths

Gold is one of the densest metals and also one of the softest – a combination that makes it pretty useless

Gold fever was considered a real medical condition at the time and was a risky choice people were making

People often travelled up to 5 months on a boat to a place they’d bought land paid a lot of money for without knowing much about it

The phrase “many irons in the fire” comes from having many things on the go being made on the fire, like blacksmiths

Blacksmiths are people who work with black or dark coloured materials in the fire to bend, forge and mould them

They deal with many colours on the spectrum, including when the fire makes the metal white which enables them to make a molecular bond between two pieces which is also known as a fire forge

We have to head off as we’re meeting for our gold mine tour

The tour kicks off with a little pitch black ride down to the mine

This mine was in operation between 1902 and 1911 and reaches down 60ft

At the time, there were no telephones so they have a bell fitted with a list of signals per how many rings

18,000 litres is pumped per hour and they ultimately discovered around 900kg of gold

They were looking for Quartz-baring gold and Sovereign Hill have placed some gold leaf to show what it would have looked like

Carbon in the rock, positioned East to West, was a good indicator that gold was to be found

7 grams of gold per 1,000kg of material mined

They used dynamite as well as a drill that was powered by air pressure and called a “widow maker”; it was very loud, so contributed to deafness, and a by-product was Silica which comes out very finely that it can be breathed in and causes silicosis

Sovereign Hill stumbled upon an independent mine in the last century – these weren’t recorded so very common and were very unstable due to not having the funding of the company owned mine

They have timber that look like it holds up the mine – this is not the case; it’s instead working as a alarm as when there’s more pressure on this wood, it’ll creek and alert anyone inside to run!

There’s a little train running through we hop on to get back to the start – it had special effects showing dynamite explosions

Back to the surface, they’re just kicking off the gold pouring demo

Alluvial mining is gold that’s easily accessible, from panning in creeks at the surface, but we’re learning about Quartz mining here which happens from going underground

Gold is naturally attracted to Mercury which is why it’s heavily used in the mining process – in order to divide the pair, the combination needs to be fired in a crucible

To prevent mercury poisoning, the extracted substance needs to be put into cold water where it becomes it’s liquid form and becomes easier to manage

After firing up the gold to 12,000°, it’s poured into a mould and then it quickly cools enough to be solid

It takes 2-3 hours to cool naturally but it’s chucked in some cold water where it is chilled to touchable temperature within 7 seconds releasing it’s 900° heat as steam

The 3kg bar costs $100,000 per kilo and is locked away in a safe from thieving tourists!

After, we pop over to New York Bakery which does us a shared Sunday roast ????

Stuffed with noms, we venture nearby to do the Red Hill Mine tour where you’re guided by an audio track

We learn that the second largest gold nugget ever found, “welcome nugget” weighing 2,217 ounces and valuing £8,868 in 1858, was found here in

Over the road is the confectionery shop – we’ve missed the demonstration but we get some candy they’ve just made (it’s still warm ????)

Leading up to the top of the park has some animals, including Mediterranean Miniature Donkeys

We find the Candle & Soap Works where we see the candle dipper, which they call a “nodding donkey” having two ears, a nose and nods

Opposite is the bowling alley which looks a hard game to win with the length of the alley being very long!

Passing through Main Street, with all the classic shops in this era, to the exit where we leave to make tracks with the rest of our day

Driving an hour South, towards the coast and past Geelong, we start the Great Ocean Road (a scenic, tourist drive)

A brief stop for supplies in Torquay before making it to Bells Beach – a surf hotspot on the South coast

We soak in the views and then head off for Lorne

It’s a vibrant seaside town with surf and socialising aplenty – we have to dash through as we’re running behind but it’s a possibility for us to return for a surf day

To switch drivers, we have a little stop by the estuary of Grey River and see if there’s anyone in the rock pools

On the final leg of the drive, we enter the Otway National Park – the road is incredibly windy so we’re glad we’re not driving in the dark and not meeting any cars ????

We make it to our stay for the night: Cozy Otway Accommodation has us in their Kookaburra Cottage and it’s adorable!