Bendigo to Ballarat

3-4 Dec

Ballarat was our next point of call, and is probably the big tourist area for the goldfields and Australian history.As we pulled into town we found the main information centre located at the Eureka Stokade memorial centre.This is the location where in 1854 the diggers on the goldfield stood up to the apparent injustices of the colonial police (at that time the Australian states were still colonies of Great Britain and Australia was not a country in its own right). Without going into detail, the police were charging them to dig for gold and imposing taxes on them which were injust and they were very harsh in insuring the taxes were paid regardless of whether a digger found any gold or not.In short what resulted at Eureka was a battle between the diggers and the police in which at least 22 diggers died as they lost their fight.But after losing the battle the public opinion was with them and new laws and changes were brought in, and the diggers began to have more of a voice in parliament and the laws which they operated under.This event is widely credited as the very first step of democracy in Australia.

As it just happened the day we arrived was the 155th anniversary of the stockade so we got free access to the Museum on site which was quite informative.That was all we had time for that afternoon other than finding a site to camp.In Bendigo we had just camped at a caravan park which although not senic, had lots of facilities including showers that we needed.We decided to do the same in Ballarat before hitting the bush and national parks of our next destinations.The problem was that all the caravan parks in Ballarat were a bit more up-market and charged too much we though for the simple right of camping there.What we therefore decided to do was head 17 km back out of town to a small place we had seen that would no doubt be much cheaper.Cheaper it was so we booked in and pitched out tent.But obviously the unemployed or those doing it a bit hard also liked the cheap conditions as there was an ally of very old looking caravans set up where obviously people permanently live.No sooner had we set up than we were paid a visit by a friendly local lady.She was actually quite nice and clearly bored of life in the park so wanted someone to talk with.She was also obviously "not quite all there" and acted a little strange.At one stage she invited herself right into our tent and sat herself down on one of the fold out chairs we had set up.She was gossiping away and seemed to have no intention of leaving.But we felt a little sad for her so had a chat for a while.A little disturbingly she was always complementing us on the stuff we had and asking how much it cost....Her other quirk was complimenting Rae on things like her nail polish and her hair do (hair pulled straight back).She even asked Rae to help with her hair until she remembered it was short and she couldn't pull it back.Eventually she was on her way and we quickly ducked into the tent, zipped it up, and put a lock on the zips for good measure.

The Next day we visited the Soveriegn hill centre which was excellent.It is basically an old mine and gold digging area that has now been re-created and operated for tourists. Everything from the gold panning areas to the main street, shops, and old houses are present.But all the staff are their in the costumes from the town and wander around the main areas doing random little sketches and interacting with the public.It is all done in a way that works really well.There are lots of demonstrations about how things were done back in the 1800's including melting down and pouring of a gold nugget (each one worth over 100,000 aussie dollars), candy making, gun firing, panning for gold etc etc.The day we were there we even glimpsed the Victorian Premier on a tour of the mines as a new exhibition was opening.We had a tour of the gold fields, and again we were the only ones at that time so got yet another private tour.We spent the whole day at the complex and really enjoyed and were always doing one thing or another so shows how much there is to do.It is a great place for kids, and a number of school groups were wandering around (all forced to dress up in the olden day costumes).

That night we also booked in to see a light and sound spectacular at Sovereign hill which detailed again the history of the gold fields and the events of the Eureka stockade (a story which by this stage we had heard many times).For the high price we paid we were little disappointed with the show.

Finally after a huge day it was time to go and lock ourselves into the tent again at our infamous camping park.

Stats so far.

Kilometres travelled so far on trip: 1180

Fish caught by Chris: 1 (fished for about 30 minutes in the lake near caravan park)