Life in Colour

Once again joining in with Jude of the Travel Talk blog for her Life in Colour monthly challenge. The colour for March is green. Jude posted some gorgeous photos. 

So here are some of my ‘greens’...

The sign is outside the Eureka Centre and Museum in Ballarat, a city in Victoria which is part of the gold rush history of Australia. 

And the next photo was also taken in Ballarat. This beautifully restored old tram runs on weekends. 

I’ve always associated Ireland with the colour green and when we finally got to visit the land of my forebears ( on my mother’s side), these green post boxes really stood out when you come from a country with red ones! 


So I guess it only followed that the postal vehicles would be green also. 

How cute is that! 

Talking of Ireland, there’s St Patrick’s Day which is also enthusiastically celebrated here in Australia. This was the morning tea spread that 3 of us put together for our stitching group’s monthly meetup one March. I think you can guess our theme. 😂 🇮🇪 

And in the ‘new normal’ times we now live in, the ‘green tick’ is an essential step in gaining access to so many places. 



So there are some of my greens and as the challenge runs for the whole month, I’ll be back with more! 😜

And even more Ballarat...

I heard that it actually snowed in Ballarat today, but when we were there it was just COLD! Lol

After the MADE visit we headed to the war memorials to take a photo of the wall of POW names for Alison, a friend of mine from school days; specifically the section with her dad's name...

Then we headed for the Botanical Gardens...and being a Sunday, the vintage tram was running...

There was a lovely craft/art show in that amazing building in the collage below...

We both loved the Prime Ministers' walk last time we visited these gardens. And there is another relative of my friend Alison here...the first Prime Minister, Edmund Barton. 

DH heading off down the walkway, 'reacquainting himself' with the former PMs...

Australia has had lots of upheavals on the federal political scene with PMs being changed rapidly at one stage. Last time we were in Ballarat the first female Prime Minister was in office but her statue wasn't there. Now it is, but we've had 2 PMs since then and their statues are obviously still works in progress 😉.  

I think just like parks in Queensland, the Ballarat Botanical Gardens may have problems with possums, hence the barrier on the trunk of this tree??

I loved the bark on this tree...

We were quite cold after our little walk around the Gardens so we checked out Pipers Cafe across the road...

We'd seen some swans waddling around beside the road so I was chuffed when I saw my coffee 😃

After a warm drink and some scones we walked along a tiny part of Lake Wendouree's shoreline, which was just behind Pipers. Beautiful! 

Those boat sheds in the distance were used as a Dr Blake Mysteries location. 

After this we went up to the Lookout on Black Hill...great views of the town between the trees.

And in this area around Black Hill there are tracks for trail bikers...

Some opportunities for some hair raising rides there I think...but not for me! 

More Ballarat...

I love Ballarat...it is the buildings there I think, that prompt me to make that statement. The city has kept the elegant old buildings of yesteryear unlike my home city of Brisbane...the 'powers that be' tore so many down here, leaving relatively few 'historically significant (and beautiful) old buildings.

This visit, DH and I stayed in the lovely George Hotel in Lydiard St...a street full of beautiful old buildings. 

  I didn't take a photo in our hotel room but all the old features had been kept...fancy cornices and ceilings, and the hallways leading to the rooms were magnificent. However I did take some photos near the entrance while DH was settling the account on the day we left...

It just so happens that the TV show Dr Blake's Mysteries is set in Ballarat and that various locations around the city are used in filming...especially buildings in Lydiard St, where we were staying!

On our walks, I snapped photos of other old buildings too of course...a repurposed building; bakery downstairs and 'executive' apartments upstairs.

Across the road from the bakery...

We found these old buildings after walking down a lane way from Lydiard St...

More repurposed buildings which form part of the Federation University Campus...

The street behind that part of the uni camous...

Across the road from Her Majesty's Theatre in Lydiard St...

This building in the right of next photo which was diagonally across the street from our hotel, is on the site of where the troopers assembled in 1854, ready to march on the miners holed up at the Stockade. 

This post only shows a tiny part of the wonderful old buildings in Ballarat. In 2012 I also wrote  post about this city where I waxed lyrical about the buildings...so nothing's changed!
Once again DH and I didn't have time to visit the wonderful Sovereign Hill at Ballarat. It is a huge open air museum devoted to the history of the area. Ideally a visit there would be over 2 days. Both of us has visited Sovereign Hill before...in my case over 37 years ago! 

Ballarat, Victoria...

I've written about our visit to Bendigo, but we also spent 2 nights in Ballarat, another old gold mining town. Ballarat was the scene of a big rebellion by the gold miners against the government and its mining licence fees. This event took place in 1854 and the miners had erected a 'fortress' out of bits and pieces known as the Eureka Stockade, from behind which they fought off the government's troopers. Sadly the miners were defeated but this event is part of Australia's proud history and has been referred to as the start of Democracy in this country and has even been described as the beginning of an Australian Identity. 

The last time DH and I were in Ballarat, a large new building (M.A.D.E.) was being erected on the site of the rebellion. That was in 2012, and that building is now well and truly completed. The letters in M.A.D.E. stand for Museum of Australian Democracy at Eureka. 

Before we walked through the Museum, we met up with a fellow blogger Vireya, for a coffee and a catch up. And I didn't get a photo of Vireya 🙄! 

It was too dark in the museum to take photos and flash photography wasn't allowed. I loved the various exhibits and learned a lot about this part of Australian history. There were large touch screens which made learning fun and very informative. Visitors could learn about the social and economic conditions of the time and the effects on the population of high levels of immigrants. I hadn't known that there were quite a few women on the goldfields and lots of children. I always imagined it was just men roughing it in the terrible conditions. Another fact I had never considered was that many of the Indigenous people became miners too. 

There was also a display of gold jewellery from the1800s...there was so much and it was very ornate and ostentatious. Apparently success and power of people were judged by a show of wealth. 😒

My absolute favourite exhibit was the Power of Words which featured famous speeches. While the speeches played, the names of techniques used in the oratory are listed and projected on the wall of the exhibit as they are used by the speaker. As you can guess, Martin Luther King Jnr's speech is one, as is Paul Keating's 'Redfern' speech and Churchill's speech to the British public to name just 3.

I spent quite a bit of time walking around the grounds looking at the artworks which were fascinating. 

The Eureka Circle...

Even the children's playground, built in the style of a fort, had some 'redcoats' ( soldiers)...

The grounds are beautiful...I enjoyed watching these ducks on the small lake...

Long view...

It was bitterly cold the morning we were there, so I didn't spend too much time wandering around the grounds...which was a pity. 

This museum is a wonderful asset to the city of Ballarat. 

Ballarat, Victoria...

Ballarat is just an amazing city! The buildings are just so impressive and so well looked after. It of course was an extremely wealthy city because of the gold discoveries.

The Ballarat Railway station

It is well known for the ‘Eureka Rebellion’, (Dec 3, 1854) where the gold miners rebelled against the high price of gold licences imposed by the government. These licences had to be paid in advance and when you think that many miners did not find much gold at all, and that the government offered little in the way of ‘services’ or value for money of the cost of the licences, it’s probably no wonder that these prospectors rebelled.

The site of the troopers camp

DH and I walked and drove along the Eureka Trail from where the troopers (police) were camped in Lydiard St, to where the police were joined by soldiers to finally to the place where the miners were ‘holed up’ in their makeshift ‘Eureka Stockade’. ( the miners had built this fort in November) It was a bloodbath; the miners didn’t stand a chance. Their numbers were few and the soldiers and police attacked them from all sides. Many miners were killed. However, because of the rebellion, there were changes in the Victorian parliament which have been called the beginnings of democracy in Australia. Unfortunately the end of the trail (the site of the stockade) is a building site as a large visitor’s centre is being built. It will feature interactive displays and lots more ...but we were too early...it’s not finished yet! J

DH and I also walked around the war memorial and the Botanical Gardens in Ballarat. The gardens have a very special walkway which is lined with the busts of Australian Prime Ministers. Julia’s is not there yet.

Memorial honouring those who fought in all the wars up to the Korean

A view of the Botanical Gardens

DH with Gough Whitlam

With Kevin, a fellow Qlder

Another memorial to all serviceman and women

A Triumph Arch built to celebrate the end of WW1

The historical tram

Street scene in Ballarat