Ballarat

After 3 overcast and drizzly days we moved in to Ballarat as there was no sun to use our solar panels for charging the batteries. There was still more we wanted to do at Ballarat so we decided to hang around for a while.

We chose our caravan park based on reviews on WikiCamps... and while it was a nice caravan park it was just across the road from the train line, which no one mentioned in their reviews! (seriously, who doesn't comment on the noisy trains while giving reviews!) The caravan park had great facilities for kids, which kept ours entertained given that it was pretty miserable with lots of rain and wind while we were there. They had 2 X-box 360 Kinects that you could play for free and we all had such a good time with them that we may have to get one when we get home!

I loved the historic buildings and houses throughout Ballarat. It felt like everywhere we drove I was commenting “ooh, look at that one” or “I love that one” and similar. I've come to the conclusion that modern house construction is boring and bland and we have taken function over form way too far. Why can't our houses still be beautiful and pretty and appealing and attractive, yet be functional and cost effective? But perhaps I am the only one who feels that way.

Years ago, when I was pregnant with Tilda, I joined an online group of mums all expecting bubs in that October. 9 years later many of us are still in touch and while I had plans of meeting many of the Melbourne mummies while there, we just didn't stay in Melbourne long enough to allow it. So I was very excited to meet one of the lovely mummies, Kristy and her 4 kids, while we stayed at Ballarat. After being online friends for so long it was so nice to finally meet one of these mummies and even better to know she is every bit as lovely in person as she is online, and her kids are gorgeous too. Tilda took over an hour of playing at the Maccas playground to warm up and stop being shy and had a fantastic half hour or so with the kids. She had such a great time she was sad when we all had to leave and wanted to meet them again the next day.

Sovereign Hill

The best part of Ballarat, according to Tilda at least, but I think I also agree – Sovereign Hill. It is quite pricey but it is a not for profit organisation and they have certainly done and amazing job there. You can go two days for the price of one, which we did as we didn't get to see everything the first day.

We got to see a 100 ounce gold ingot being poured (worth around $160,000). It was interesting to see the process of the gold being heated then poured into a mould. It was then plunged into a bath of cold water and most of the heat dissipated so rapidly that they lady doing the demonstration was able to pick it up in her hand almost straight away. I thought the heat would have lingered. Even more interesting than watching the gold being poured was listening to the lady doing the demonstration talk about the mining history of the area. It seems rather ironic that gold was first found in Ballarat at Poverty Point. The history of the area, the gold findings, the different mining types etc was very interesting.

We watched hard boiled musk drops being made. This is a very physical process, which I didn't realise. The mixture (sugar, sucrose, something else that I forget, and a musk essence) is heated until a syrup is formed. The mixture is then poured onto a table with a metal surface that has hot and cold water pipes running under it to keep the table at the right temperature for the candy to set into a toffee-like consistency. The “toffee” is folded and turned until the right consistency is reached throughout the mix. This is then hung on a hook on the wall and stretched, folded, stretched and repeated until it is at the right stage. It is then cut into square blocks which are run through a cutting and shaping machine (kind of like a Cuttlebug or BigShot for my crafty friends). It is amazing they are still using the machine today from the 1800's when it was first started by the Brown Family.

We did 2 mine tours. One was the Red Hill Mine tour, which is part of the admission price. This is a self guided underground tour where you follow the story of a young apprentice beginning his mining. It was interesting to do. We also did the Labyrinth tour. You have to pay for this on top of admission but I think it was definitely worth it. We caught a train 25m underground. As you go down it is completely inky black, so dark you can't see your hand in front of your face at all. I don't think we often get to experience this level of total absence of light. The tour of the mine workings (yes, it is a tour of a mine that was worked in the past) is very interesting, with lots to learn and examples of the gold found in Ballarat.

I also thoroughly enjoyed The Criterion, which was a store selling clothes, china, lace, tea towels, books and other similar items. It was just a very pretty shop to visit. The other thing I really enjoyed was watching the wheelwright make a wooden wheel for the carts they use onsite. It is a process that takes 5 years for each wheel as they have to cure the centre bits (that's my technical term for it as I cant remember the name of it) for 5 years and the spokes for 2. The wheelwright walked us through all the steps and it was truly very interesting.

Tilda was VERY eager to go to school there. They have daily school demonstrations and she happily went off to school on the Sunday. The teacher was dressed in time appropriate costume, made the girls form one line and the boys another and led them into school with girls sitting at the front and boys behind (this included separating out the parents). The children were told all about school in the late 1800's and were then given the opportunity to write with pen and ink. Tilda enjoyed it but found pen and ink a bit too much to manage. The teacher gave Rory chalk and slate, recognising that a pen and ink probably wasn't the best idea for him. Sure enough, when my attention was elsewhere for a second or two he stuck his finger in the ink well and ended up with a blue stained finger up to the first joint, much to the amusement of some of the dads.

 Waiting for school

 Pen and ink is pretty tricky

Rory was given a sand tray to "practice writing" in

Tilda panned for gold and found gold so she was a very happy munchkin!

Despite spending 7 days in the Ballarat region, it still wasn't enough to see and do all we would have liked to, but time is moving and so we decided to move on.