Ballarat

Written 23/01/12

Me and Not John have been making pretty good progress on the fence and now it's Sunday, which means a day of rest! Simon was off to Ballarat to pick up some stuff so Not John and I joined him and got dropped off in the centre of the once thriving gold rush town.

That's quite the town hall you've got there.

It’s not really thriving now but it has retained some very interesting architecture and the large scale of the place is testament to the gold rush past it was once host to.

I walked around for a couple of hours, right up towards the gardens but time was a factor so I only got as far as Lake Wendouree near the City Oval. The lake is huge, larger than the main city centre of Ballarat and a few rowers were out on the placid waters.

Also fluffy cygnets, not little tiny ones, more like teenage ones.

Being a Sunday the town was quiet. Many of the shops were closed but a small row of cafes along Sturt Street were pretty full but the shops that had bothered to open were empty, clearly the customers had better things to do in the 30 something degree heat.

Imagine living here? I.... I don't think I can....

Churches, churches everywhere!

Another historical building for sale

Such a fancy train station

Want to know what is written on those boarded doors?

Sadness, that's what is written there.

The route back to Poverty Lane took us past Eureka, a place that was host to a bit of a revolution by a bunch of gold miners against the government because of leases or something. Nowadays the ‘Eureka spirit’ is used by politicians to try and adhere to humans that aren't politicians. I’m sorry, that last line suggested that politicians are human.

So that was Ballarat, nice place.