We've just spent two nights in Ballarat - a town famous for gold mining. In the 1850s gold was discovered and a rush ensued. We stayed in a hostel on the grounds of Soverign Hill "museum". This is one of the "living museums" where staff are dressed in period costume and pretend they're living in the past. There were recreations of various parts of Ballarat's history, and I was a little dubious about going. I have to say that it was nicely done, and a lot of fun going there. We did a tour of a gold mine, which was entertaining, informative and professional, and ended with a ride on a train. Whilst not as much like Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom as I'd hoped, the ride was a fun end to the tour.
There was a young girl staying in the small hostel with us. We chatted with her a little on the first night but she was quite shy. We didn't realise she was working there (work experience) and I nearly spat my coffee out the next morning when she came out of the bathroom in full period costume. I tried hard not to laugh, but it was a very funny sight.
Today we came to Hall's Gap (Helm's Deep) on two coaches - a bit of hassle. It's been worth it though since on a short walk to a waterfall we saw an echidna (porcupine-type thing, endorsed by Prince Harry) and a wallaby. Yay! Never get bored of the Aussie wildlife.
(NB all blog-posting times now in GMT. This was to try to sort out a problem with the archives. Posts from the 1st of the month weren't appearing on the archives. July 1st is now sorted at least, so I'm hoping others will be.)