Today we went on a day trip to Ballarat and Sovereign Hill north-west of Melbourne, setting off at an early hour we travelled by coach about 110 killometres. In Ballarat we saw Lake Wendouree which is where the world rowing championships will take place in three years time. It got the name when the person who discovered it asked a local Aboriginal child who said to him Wendouree which in the native tongue means go away. However even though the rowing championships take place in 3 years the lake absolutely bone dry but they are working on filling it with reclaimed water. Victoria has experienced 13 years of no significant, rainfall and long range forecasts have not suggested any change. The longest drought in the past has been no more than about seven years.

Ballarat/Sovereign Hill is a living museum of Australia's gold rush period. An extremely interesting place, most of the people who work there are in period costume (victorian) and everything that you see is a true representation of what would have happened in those times. It reminded us of Beamish, with its old fashioned foundry, sweet shop, candle and soap makers, etc. Our first trip was to the Gold Mine Tour, a 40 minutes underground guided tour of a gold mine. We also visited and participated in a school lesson.

We ended the day with a visit to the gold museum. This had a beautiful gold menorah as described in the Torah.

1st March 2009

Today our last full day on our own, we had fully intended to visit the Queen Victoria Market in the morning and a museum in the afternoon, however we spent so much time at the market that we had no time to visit the museum. The market is an historic landmark and has been operating for more than a century having been officially opened in 1878. The market sells everything from exotic fruit and vegetables and local and imported gourmet foods to hardware, clothing and souvenirs. Because we were there so long lunch was late and we decided to have a ride on the free city circle tram which takes about an hour to travel go round the Central Business District. we then returned to the hotel and sat down for ten minutes and woke up forty minutes later!!!

We then went to have a look at the Italian quarter travelling there by tram, where we saw various Italian themed shops and restaurants. After that we travelled back to Federation Square.

Whilst we are in Federation Square have you discovered who or what is Chloe. Chloe's history is closely connected with the picture below.