Best Western Cathedral Motor Bendigo

... iy came time to don hard hats and go down 60 meters, I headed back to the museum and waited for Paul and Leona.

There are hundreds and hundreds of gold shafts under Bendigo, the picture attached shows one small section - about one EIGHTH of the existing shafts! Each line on this map is an underground shaft or tunnel big enough for a mining crew and equipment.

Because Bendigo was a gold rush destination in the 1800's, there was a large influx of Cantonese Chinese Immigrants into the area. They had no civil rights, were allowed to search for gold only where Europeans had already worked the fields and taken the easy pickings, and they were taxed every time they turned around. But they came, they made their livings and sent word home to other Chinese men who eventually turned up in Bendigo. Some of ...

... prices. (Gas, for example, is about $4.50 per gallon).

Paul made a gorgeous green curry stir fry for dinner, and then we went out to see if we could find some 'Roos. We came across a gang (not a herd . . . a Gang) grazing, and one large female had a cute little Joey poking out of her pouch. We also spotted a flock of cockatoos, a kookaburra bird and a red parrot in the trees, all within 10 minutes of the house. Pretty cool, huh?

Well ok .. we drove here today but i didn't actually do anything in Bendigo until tomorrow ... but i will put it all in the blog anyway ...

So ... we drove into Bendigo and visited a Gold Mine ... cool ... there was gold in the walls .. and it wasn't ...

Up with the birds again today, weather is cool and cloudy with sunbreaks.
Painted the walls for a couple of hours, then Paul and I visited Bendigo Pottery. This pottery uses a white clay found a couple of hours drive from Bendgo. We watched a Potter create a quiche pan and poked around the original ...

We awoke to birdsong at 5:30 this morning; beautiful and exotic. I'm told that if I keep my eyes open I will spot cockatoos, lorakeets and rosellas, as well as parrots, in the trees in this small town and in the bush. I'm not sure how I can keep my eyes on the trees when I am busy scanning the land for kangaroos! (not to mention crocodiles). A special treat this morning was breakfast at Beechworth Bakery, where we tried the Ned Kelly Pie, a savory ...

... location of their friend's seats at said match. Now I don't profess to be the most eloquent person in the world and a few of my Australian expressions caused a stir with work colleagues, however I do get annoyed with the news readers. There is an incredible dumbing down and of the news, and most reports are ridiculously sensationalised. "A 22 year old man has remained in hospital over night after being BASHED in an ...

... places outside of Melbourne. Gemma, a nice british girl, and I were sent on a two hour train ride to Bendigo. That is were I've been this past week. Usually you stay in a volunteer house over the weekend and are sent to another city during the work week. Due to a terrible drought in Victoria (the state I'm in) that plan was sqaushed. I was actually happy about it because I couldn't take yet ANOTHER move. It's nice to have a place to leave your bags for a few days. I ...

... das Stadtbild praegt. Also kein Vergleich zu sued-europaeischen Laendern wie es immer hingestellt wird. Immerhin haben sie eine riesen Strasse nur mit italienischen Restaurants und lecker Cafe und Gelati. Auch in der Innenstadt finden sich 2 Straesschen mit paar netten Restaurants und Cafes. Architektonisch ist es nett hier- alt (oder eher auf alt gemacht) und Neu stehen nebeneinander und ...

... steamer called the pride of the Murray, which was really nice. The real reason we went to Echuca though was to watch Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire with Dominic (6) well it was as much for me as for him :-) After 3 days experiencing real Aussie life including 2 bbqs, possum hunting, and staying on a farm, and drinking a lot of beer, well I couldn't let them think we poms couldn't drink, it was time to head back to the big city.