The Maternity Tree

Just off the road between Talbot and Maryborough, is a really old, large tree with an open space forming a shelter at the base of the trunk. This is the maternity tree. According to the Talbot Indigenous Heritage Web site:

Making Tracks

We have reached the end of our current house sit and we are about to embark on a grand adventure.

Bull Gully Rockwells

We visited the Bull Bully Rockwells not far from the road between Maryborough and Talbot. According to the information on the Talbot Indigenous Heritage website:

Victorian Goldfields Railway

 
To celebrate my birthday, we took a train ride on the Victorian Goldfields Railway. This is a steam engine that pulls five cars between Castlemaine and Maldon. We purchased 1st class tickets and rode in what seemed to be the club car.

Vaughan Cemetery

This cemetery is an interesting place, nestled on the side of a hill and the bottom lands next to a stream. Here we find this marker with the text engraved on it in two different directions. I don't think I've seen this before.

Vaughan Springs

Just south of Castlemaine is the Digging National Heritage Park where much of the local gold was dug. It is a beautiful area with hills and bush.

Mitiamo

A couple hours north of Castlemaine is the Terrick Terrick National Park. At the edge of this is the very small town of Mitiamo. We drove up here to see what we could see. Although the images are not very clear, we saw White Necked Herons have a feed in the fields.

Around Castlemaine

Winter is coming to an end and flowers are starting to bloom. Spring is on its way.

Old Castlemaine Gaol

On top of the highest hill in town sits the old Castlemaine Gaol. The view from here is nice, but I'm pretty sure that none of the involuntary residents were unimpressed.

A Drive in Country

We took the ute to Ballarat for some work today and when it was done, we decided to drive west about an hour before heading home. Along the way we found some idyllic sheep farms.

Dr. Blake Exhibit

In Ballarat, a bit southeast of town is the Sovereign Mine. At the same site is the Gold Museum. In there, is a good historical description of the rise and fall of gold mining in and around Ballarat. We may yet return to visit the mine to see what it was like.

However, much to our surprise, the museum was also hosting a special exhibit on the TV show The Doctor Blake Mysteries. This was fun. Above you see me behind Dr. Blake's desk with (a cardboard cutout of) him beside me.

Pennyweight Flats Cemetery

On a hill, not far from the mail Chewton Cemetery, we find the historic Pennyweight Flats Cemetery. This was on land selected for its worthlessness as a gold source. Since a pennyweight is a very small amount, the cemetery was named to be a nearly worthless place.

Chewton Cemetery

Just east of Castlemaine is the small community of Chewton. From the local paper/magazine we can tell that it is a vibrant, close-knit place. It also houses a couple interesting cemeteries.

North British Mine

Just on the edge of Maldon are the remains of the North British Mine. Much of structure that remains is related to the heaters and crushers required to extract the gold ore from the quartz in which it was imbedded.

Maldon

The town of Maldon is a delightful place. It was designated as Australia's first notable town in 1966 and is a great place to visit to see a very large collection of well preserved 19th century buildings in a small place. The 2011 census put the population at 1,432 but it was not always so small.

Newstead

In the town of Newstead are all sorts of cool buildings. The first one we came upon was this tiny church.

Newstead Cemetery

We are settled in in Castlemaine with our house sit and looking about for things to do. Of course we are starting looking about for cemeteries. The first on our list is in Newstead.

Ballarat CBD

Naturally, before we left Ballarat, we had to visit the city center. Although we've never watched the show, we're told that the Doctor Blake Mysteries (available in the US on Netflix) is filmed largely along Lydiard Street to take advantage of many fine Victorian buildings that remain from the gold rush days. It seemed fun to visit and get some images for our friends who know this show so everyone can see what it really looks like.

Ballarat Old Cemetery

After a restful evening in Ballarat, we decided to see a bit of town before we left. Naturally, our first stop was the Old Cemetery.

Lake Wendouree

After our drive about northern Tasmania, we boarded the ferry and had a quiet evening crossing the Bass Strait. This time, however, there was some stormy weather in the middle somewhere and we were awakened to some moderate tossing and turning. When I woke up to make a visit to the men's room, I found that I had to hold onto things to walk the 1 meter to reach the necessary.

By the time we landed in Melbourne, it was a calm mostly sunny morning. We drove north and west to Ballarat for our first night in Victoria. Since it is only about an hour and a half from Melbourne to Ballarat, we had time to kill in the afternoon so we went to Lake Wendouree to have a look about. Here, we got a well posed photo of a Black Swan.