Ballarat was the epicentre of the Australian gold rush of the 1800s, and fortunes were made in those Victorian hills. Yesterday we visited an open-air museum called Sovereign Hill that gives an idea of life in the gold-mining towns in those days.

The park features a couple of ‘mines’ and a dig for gold panning, all adjacent to a simulated main street from the period. Employees in costume wander around and occasionally do performances (we watched a ‘wife auction’) and visitors can just wander around and explore as they like. I’m sure Australian readers know about this place (since it’s a major tourist attraction) but to Americans this is like a (permanent) 1800s renaissance fair.

Several of the stores featured tradesmen that manufactured the articles they sold. A few of these workshops featured flabbergastingly elaborate belt-driven machines all powered by a single engine and giant belts (some dozens of meters in circumference) stretching up to the rafters and across the rooms!

We did a self-guided mine tour that took us underground and utilized sound, lights and special effects similar to what I’ve seen at Disney. It was great but unfortunately we didn’t have the time to do the bigger and longer versions. There was also a fancy ‘old photo’ studio that would have been fun and a separate ‘history of gold’ museum that could have filled a day itself. We certainly could have spent more time there.

For me though the highlight of the day was gold-panning. As with many things, I’m an expert at this esoteric method of goldfinding and despite Bernard’s skepticism knew I’d not only find gold but also had a decent chance of striking it rich!

And – of course – I was right. Here’s the nugget I found after only minutes of expert-level sloshing and searching:

Now the killjoys out there are going to say something like “But that’s only 0.5 square mm of gold!!!” and “If a Troy ounce can be beaten to 8 square meters of gold leaf then that’s worth only $0.00009!!” but I look at this as an important first step to riches, and validation of my prospecting skills.

It’s a shame Bernard – only seconds after this photo was taken – hurled the nugget down onto the ground, never to be seen again. All that value, now literally lies in the dusts of Sovereign Hill in Ballarat.