Ballarat - Sovereign Hill
On the day we got back from our Tassie trip, we drove straight to Ballarat from the airport to visit Sovereign Hill - an outdoor museum on the gold rush in Victoria in mid 1800s.
Gold was discovered in Australia since early 1800s. However, the gold rush only began in 1851 when gold was discovered in Ballarat, Victoria. It is through this gold rush that Melbourne had prospered.
The story begins...
Other than the Europeans (especially English), Chinese were also one of the early participants in the Gold Rush. I never knew Chinese were also one of the early settlers in Australia (since 1854).
Trying our luck... but in vain. This method is popular in mining alluvial gold.
Tents occupied by Chinese miners. There were also Chinese shops and temples.
This gold bar is worth around A$150,000. Wow!
The same bar of gold being smelted
When alluvial gold ran out, underground mining began
Gold nuggets embedded
Underground tunnel in a gold mine
Mining town - with abundance of wealth
Gold nugget
On the way back to Melbourne, we chanced upon Kryal Castle in Ballarat. Don't know what is the history though.
More photos of Sovereign Hill here.
1 comment:
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