Goldfields of Australia

On Monday and Tuesday we visited two more goldfield towns. On Monday we were in Bendigo, a town of over 100,000 people that was a gold center in the late 1800’s. We started out on the “talking” tram, a tram that ran with late 1800 and early 1900 restored cable cars. They have been trying for 10 years to raise money for car restoration and preserve the trolley building. They were working on the station and should be visitor ready by the end of this year. During the tour we got off at Joss House in the Chinese quarter. Joss House is a name that is given to any place that people can come and worship whatever god they believe in. This Joss House had three rooms including the caretaker’s cottage, the Main Altar and the Ancestral Hall. The main altar is dedicated to Guan-Di, the god of war and prosperity. The Ancestral Hall is dedicated to the memory of ancestors. It was a very interesting visit.

Next we visited the Golden Dragon Museum and its main attractions are Loong, the world’s oldest Imperial dragon and Sun Loong, the world’s longest Imperial dragon. The dragons are used in parades during Easter Fair Festival. Loong was first used in 1892 and was retired in 1970. Then Sun Loong took over and is still used today. The head is over 2 meters tall and needs 5 people to carry it. The rest of the body needs 52 people to carry it with 52 people to relieve and an extra 5 just in case. Its body is covered with over 90,000 mirrors hand sewn on. They also had antique Chinese items and furniture from the late 1800’s from people that lived in the area. During the hay-day of gold mining there were over 1000 Chinese living in Bendigo. Now you will find it hard to find any pure Chinese living there. And if you think someone is of Chinese heritage and ask them, they will deny it due to how bad they were treated long ago.

On Tuesday we took off to the town of Ballart. Another town that runs around 100,000 people. During the late 1800’s this place was considered the cultural center of the goldfield towns. It had class, art, culture, fine dining, 5 star entertainments and even had Mark Twain visit. The buildings are still grand and culture still oozes from the town. Our first stop (after the Visitor’s Bureau) was across the street to the Art Galley – which was free! How often have you gone into an art gallery and didn’t pay admission. Unfortunately it was wasted on us because we aren’t real art lovers. Then we took off to the Wild Animal Park. The only reason we went there was to see animals uniquely Australian that we won’t see in normal circumstances – like the Tasmanian Devil.

Next stop was the Botanical Gardens, but didn’t really take a lot of time there since it started to rain so we drove around the area. Passing under the Avenue of Honours arch we drove down a tree lined street. If you looked closer you would see plaques at each base that has a name and a unit. There are 3771 trees, running 22 kilometers honoring every Australian that enlisted in WWI. No other war but that one. They do have an ex-prisoners of war monument that looks a lot like our Vietnam Wall – a large, long, black marble wall etched with names. Now Ballart is famous for a riot that took place in the late 1800’s when the government wanted to tax people that mined gold. The problem was that the tax was way too much so the miners rioted and got the tax repealed, but not without losses of life. There are statues and an area that depicts the riots and the leader. Funny how the common people can change governments mind, huh?