Monday, November 20, 2006
9th November Gold Fever!
9th November (Thursday)
Up early today, well 8.00am anyway, due to a 2 hour drive to Ballarat, the site of the Great Australian Gold Rush. There is a village in Ballarat called Sovereign Hill which has been recreated as Ballarat was around the late 1850’safter the gold rush had begaun. It started with a few finds and then turned into full scale free for all with prospectors arriving from all over the world to make their fortune. It was a grim and tough existence but a few did make their fortunes but of course many more made their money from offering services to the miners and prospectors, such as hardware stores, bars, hotels, bakeries, apothecaries etc. and so Ballarat was made. The village was very good and supposedly as authentic as they could make it, but the beer was dispensed from old hand pumps by modern electric pumps. There was the opportunity to pan for gold from an artificial stream which, we were told was populated with gold shavings on a daily basis. Unfortunately for us we also shared the village with several hundred school kids on an educational so panning was impossible due to the number of kids “prospecting”. But they were having fun making “finds”. There were many local volunteers who dressed up in clothes of the time and wandered around the streets and shops adding a little authenticity to the feel of life. These included a mayor, a policeman, who arrested a young girl for “chewing her hair!” and handcuffed her to a post in the middle of the street, to waitresses, smithies, wheelwrights and a goldsmith. We watched this guy give a demonstration of the art of removing impurities and then pouring and casting 99.95% pure gold into an ingot. Oddly enough he wouldn’t let us near it and when he had cooled it using water he put it in a glass safe! See the photos. There was an awful lot to see and we did our best but just ran out of time. We didn’t manage the underground mine tour but did see the building where they still crush the quartz and separate out the gold. We didn’t see the wheelwrights working but did go 9 pin bowling as they used to do after a hard day ’s work. Didn’t manage to take the stagecoach ride around the village but did watch the Soldiers march around the village supposedly looking for hidden gold finds that weren’t reported and assayed. A great day and finished it, looking briefly in the Gold Museum only to find that many finds of gold nuggets in the last 20 or so years have been reported. The finders tend to keep hold of them and not have them smelted although they do register the finds and some eventually sell them to the Gold museum to put on display. There were about 20 nuggets and thousands of gold coins and other gold artefacts on display and it got me wondering. With all this gold on display the value of the contents must be in the millions, not to mention all the other displays of original papers, books, diaries and the like. It must be a prime target for thieves, so why has it not been burgled or whatever it would be called for such a high value crime. Of course, silly me, where would sell the only one of its kind in the world and who would be stupid enough to buy it. These items only have a value in the legitimate world of gold.
Drove a long journey home and I must thank Jon for it as he is not used to driving long distances in day. I forget that what I count as normal and do on a daily basis others regard as a very long journey and would do only 2 or 3 times a year. So, thank you Jon.
Up early today, well 8.00am anyway, due to a 2 hour drive to Ballarat, the site of the Great Australian Gold Rush. There is a village in Ballarat called Sovereign Hill which has been recreated as Ballarat was around the late 1850’safter the gold rush had begaun. It started with a few finds and then turned into full scale free for all with prospectors arriving from all over the world to make their fortune. It was a grim and tough existence but a few did make their fortunes but of course many more made their money from offering services to the miners and prospectors, such as hardware stores, bars, hotels, bakeries, apothecaries etc. and so Ballarat was made. The village was very good and supposedly as authentic as they could make it, but the beer was dispensed from old hand pumps by modern electric pumps. There was the opportunity to pan for gold from an artificial stream which, we were told was populated with gold shavings on a daily basis. Unfortunately for us we also shared the village with several hundred school kids on an educational so panning was impossible due to the number of kids “prospecting”. But they were having fun making “finds”. There were many local volunteers who dressed up in clothes of the time and wandered around the streets and shops adding a little authenticity to the feel of life. These included a mayor, a policeman, who arrested a young girl for “chewing her hair!” and handcuffed her to a post in the middle of the street, to waitresses, smithies, wheelwrights and a goldsmith. We watched this guy give a demonstration of the art of removing impurities and then pouring and casting 99.95% pure gold into an ingot. Oddly enough he wouldn’t let us near it and when he had cooled it using water he put it in a glass safe! See the photos. There was an awful lot to see and we did our best but just ran out of time. We didn’t manage the underground mine tour but did see the building where they still crush the quartz and separate out the gold. We didn’t see the wheelwrights working but did go 9 pin bowling as they used to do after a hard day ’s work. Didn’t manage to take the stagecoach ride around the village but did watch the Soldiers march around the village supposedly looking for hidden gold finds that weren’t reported and assayed. A great day and finished it, looking briefly in the Gold Museum only to find that many finds of gold nuggets in the last 20 or so years have been reported. The finders tend to keep hold of them and not have them smelted although they do register the finds and some eventually sell them to the Gold museum to put on display. There were about 20 nuggets and thousands of gold coins and other gold artefacts on display and it got me wondering. With all this gold on display the value of the contents must be in the millions, not to mention all the other displays of original papers, books, diaries and the like. It must be a prime target for thieves, so why has it not been burgled or whatever it would be called for such a high value crime. Of course, silly me, where would sell the only one of its kind in the world and who would be stupid enough to buy it. These items only have a value in the legitimate world of gold.
Drove a long journey home and I must thank Jon for it as he is not used to driving long distances in day. I forget that what I count as normal and do on a daily basis others regard as a very long journey and would do only 2 or 3 times a year. So, thank you Jon.
# posted by desmond22 @ 10:57 pm 
