We have been fortunate enough to meet a really wonderful family who have been very thoughtful - loaning us their car, driving Colin to birthday parties and now taking me along on their travels around Victoria. Before this family lived in Melbourne, they lived in a town about 1 and 1/2 hours away from Melbourne called Ballarat. The mom, Fleur was going back to Ballarat for the day and offered to take me (Linton) there so I could look around while the kids were at school.
Ballarat, I learned, is one of the main tourist attractions in Victoria as it was the place where gold was discovered in the 1850s. If you can believe it, the actual gold was discovered in "Canadian Creek". The discovery of gold attracted thousands of diggers to the area and in 1854, there was a deadly dispute between the diggers and the government over gold licenses. As I was told by Fleur, it was "Australia's civil war moment". In 1854, the diggers burned their required licenses and in protest raised the blue flag of the Southern Cross (which became known as the Eureka Flag). Soldiers and police attacked the diggers' stockade killing about 30 diggers. Eventually the diggers who were accused of treason were acquitted and the gold digger license system was abolished. This rebellion and its result really symbolize to Australians "a fair go for all" and makes Ballarat the birthplace of Australian democracy.
Above you can see my pictures of the gold shops that still exist and the beautiful old buildings in downtown Ballarat that were built during the wealthy times of the gold rush. I did also visit the Ballarat Art Gallery which houses the original Eureka Flag. Above is the information board that sits outside the Eureka Flag gallery. If you click on the photo above, you can see that its display was partially funded by the Canadian government. No one in the gallery seemed to know why but I was proud of the connection.
The other interesting thing about Ballarat is that during the 1956 Olympic Games hosted by Melbourne, it was the location that hosted the rowing events on its manmade lake, Lake Wendouree. Because of the drought in Victoria (more on that in a future blog entry), there really isn't a lake here anymore. See the painting above of Lake Wendouree in the 1800s compared to my picture with the Olympic rings in front of what remains - a swamp.
All in all, a fun day for me to learn a little Aussie history while getting to know Fleur a bit better. I am hoping to bring the boys back to the area and visit the tourist attraction of Sovereign Hill (gold fields' museum and heritage village with an evening show that re-enacts the events of the Eureka stockade!)
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