Soverign Hill

I felt super tired this morning. Only had 3 hours plus of sleep last night and i had to wake up at 7.45am. You know how sickening the feeling is to not be able to sleep when you know you need to, and when you and trying as well. I lied there for a freakin 4hrs can! But i think its a good thing afterall, cause i will so shagged and will be able to sleep well tonight. Anyways, you guys must be thinking why did i wake up so early for right? I woke up so early cause i had to go to a gold mine = )

Had to catch at V line, which is some kinda train that goes way way out of the city, the whole journey towards the gold mine should take a bout 1.5 hours. But the train is pretty cool, can choose between first class or economy and seats are very comfy.


Yee Lin and me in the train

Wanted to sleep in the train but after talking and yakking, i realised i only had about 45 mins left, might as well not sleep lest i felt even worse having to wake up later on. You know that not enough sleep feeling right? So finally we reached Ballarat station to catch our shuttle.





In the shuttle bus

The shuttle took about 10 mins to get to the actual gold mine, and i must say, Ballarat seems to be a rather small but sophisticated town. It reminds me of England though, with those English looking buildings.



Through the eyes of the driver

Finally we arrive at Soverign Hill Gold mine

Ok some boring stuff. Soverign hill is a real gold mine where people in the 1950s used to work at. Therefore the infrastructure and staff inside the gold mine are dressed in the 1950s era. The machines used and technology also link closely to the 1950s. So you get the idea right? 1950s 1950s 1950s. And we go back into time....



I was so afraid the horse would mistake my hair for hay and eat it haha

The steam engine room that generates power for the machine to crush up stones(Quartz) so that we can find gold inside the stones(Quartz).

At the tinsmith

Getting ready for our gold tour mine, that's supposedly a man dressed in the 50s.



Listening to the briefing before we enter

On our way in...that's Vince by the way

Inside was too dark so i couldn't really take any photos. So we only managed a photo at the exit

Those are not bubbles. I don't know why my stupid cam always create bubble like orbs in dark places. But i still love my cam!

Our 2nd lady guide

After touring the mine, of course we got to see how do they make them become expensive gold bars.

Pouring the molten liquid into the mould

See that orange thing? Its hot molten just taken our from the mould. Can you imagine getting burnt by that thing? I remembered the guy saying if you just left it there to cool on its own, it would take at least 2 hours plus till you can touch it, so they came up with the method of throwing it into water. And almost immediately it became like this...

This is worth 100 over thousand dollars!

With the entrance ticket, came a free horse carriage ride around the city. Pretty worth it right? I thnk to take a horse carriage in the city is like 50 to 100 dollars? Depending how much the horseman wants to charge you; think they will slaughter people whom they think are tourist.

Our horse carriage

Inside of the carriage

The streets of 1950s

These are the stones(quartz) that i was talking about earlier on. In one quartz like that-after smashing them up, you might only be able to find a tiny bit of gold or maybe not even. So even though they may look like nothing, you might strike gold upon finding a rock!

Next i will like to show u a fashion parade. Took pictures with the 1950s folks...

At the candy shop. They are super yummy, and made according the 1950s era methods.

The policeman then

Looks very brokeback mountain haha

I don't know what occupation is this

The sweet old folks

We also had our lunch in the restaurant behind the old folks. They had quite limited food, and only one type of spagatti with olives, pine nuts and i don't know what. Something that i didn't feel like trying, but i was craving for spag so i had to settle for the kids fare, spagatti with simple tomato sauce or something. I tell you, i was so glad i chose that. The price was almost 1/3 of the adult fare, but the portion was just right. I could still order a cola float.

Can't tell my spag is kids fare right?

Us inside the restaurant

After lunch, we just walked around the area and took some random pics.

This was what a fireman in those day will push to the scene of the fire. I think its something like our hose spray now, just that it is a tad heavier.

A coffin car in those day

Some barang barang shop

After this shop, we moved on to our last part of our tour. Also something that i was looking forward to-that was gold panning. We saw many people sitting by the riverside with a plate in hand and moving it in a circling action. Think if you were really lucky enough, you might be able to find some gold dust. There was even a shovel for you to dig deep into the ground.

aiyo, so heavy!

Trying to find some gold

I'm gonna kill you for stealing my gold!

Finally we decided to leave, actually cause we had to catch the shuttle back to the station. Its quite stupid actually, they only have ONE timing for the shuttle. So if we miss it, we won't know how to go back to the station. And another thing was, the mine closed at 5.pm, the train back to the city was at 6pm, so why must the shuttle leave at 3.30??? Thank goodness there was a V line bus that will bring us back to the city at 4, or i am so gonna flip man. Anyway, i am super tired now, hope you enjoyed the tour of the gold mine, night!