Ballarat - Canberra

First up: I have shaved off the slightly ropey-looking beard you may have espied in earlier photos. Mum will be happy.

Secondly: I did type up a list of birds we'd seen, but that post was accidentally lost. I'll try to re-create this soon.

Thirdly: If you want to leave a comment, please do. Do not be intimidated by any postings from such luminaries as Karl Rove, Karl Marx or even Groucho Marx - it's all just Tam and he won't bite. Well, if you've had all your vaccinations then you'll be fine anyway...

And so to business:

From the end of the Overland Track we have made our way back to the mainland via the ferry (much more pleasant this time as we managed to score a couch to sleep on instead of the airline-style seats).

Last week we visited Ballarat - scene of the Eureka rebellion. They have set up a re-creation of the 1850's era goldrush town, complete with stables, stores, coach rides, redcoats and (of course) mines. During the Eureka rebellion, gold miners; incensed at unfair license fees and no representation, build a stockade and refused to pay their license fees. The government (predictably enough) marched a whole load of soldiers in and killed a bunch of them - as they do in these situations. However, there was a public outcry at this and all of those arrested and charged with treason were acquitted when their cases came to trial. One of them even became the representative for the region in parliament!

We spent an enjoyable day there learning about life in the 1850's for miners and their families. Unfortunately, the voice acting doesn't match the authenticity of the physical representation - but that's a small matter really.


We also tried panning for gold.


Unsucessfully.


We spent that night in our tent (due to lack of room at the inn) and although it was bitterly cold, we managed to survive.


We are now in Canberra home of Australia's parliament. Which is built into the side of a hill - a la teletubby house. We watched a session of parliament (Prime Minister's Questions) during which not much happened and there was a lot of childish shouting and booing and moaning - much like at Westminster really.


So we've spent the last few days in Canberra wandering about looking at all the sights (and sounds - we listened to a Carillon) here and are about to head to Thredbo - up in the mountains for a different perspective on Australia - at the top of the continent's highest peak!