Road & Rail Trip, Day the Third, Part II
Jul. 26th, 2009 09:24 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
xenithPart I
The morning tour was the Ned Kelly Tour, which I would have preferred in the afternoon, having had enough of the that the day before and at the courthouse. Butsuch is life I'm tough, I can handle it. There's a whole three people in the group, not counting the guide, and for our first stop he takes us down behind the town hall.
Here he starts telling us some story that I can't remember. It might have been about a trial or about Ellen Kelly, but it was something I already knew and our guide wasn't doing a good job of engaging my attention.
The sign beside these doors says "Between the years 1863-1870 Harry Power, the "Gentleman Bushranger", made seven appearances in the Beechworth Courthouses and spend considered time in these holding cells. Constructed in 1859, the Town Hall complex was also used as a court-house, such was the pressure of judicial business in those wild, early days. Below the hall there were storage vaults, a fire engine house and three prisoner cells. The cells had a spiral staircase to the court above."
I'm thinking Beechworth has the highest number of cells per capita in the country.
Inside, this is the least blurry of the photos. The photo on the wall is this on. Power was something of a highwayman, bailing up coaches and riders and robbing them. He took on a young assistant at one point, and during one hold-up the victim shot back and the boy froze, so Power had to drag him back to their horses. The boy also got arrested and taken off to Benalla where he was charged with being Power's accomplice, but fortunately for young Ned there was no enough evidence to try him with. When Power was eventually caught, he was sentenced to fourteen years at Pentridge, although I think he only served about half that. As a side note, he later spent some time working on the prison hulk turned museum Success, where he'd earlier been held as a prisoner.
After leaving here we went, um, I sort of have no photos on the card from this point until I went to the museum afterwards. Yes, I forgot to take photos. It apparently does happen and I take back any comments about the tour guide not engaging my attention.
You don't get out of it that easily though, because I went back later and took some!
As I said earlier, Aaron Sherritt lived bear Beechworth, as did the Byrnes's so a lot of the stories on the walking tour are about Joe & Aaron, such as this butcher's shop where they sold a cow one day and then Aaron returned later saying he wanted the hide to make whips from, so when the Inspector came by wanting to see the hide (and brand), the butcher was unable to produce it and found himself in the holding cell in the courthouse.
The Hiberian Hotel is said to be one of their favourite watering holes and where Aaron's young widow was taken after he was shot.
The non-denominational Common School where young Isaacs taught and was taught.
Office of William Zincke, solicitor, who represented Aaron, Joe, various Kellys and some of the sympathisers after the mass arrests.
After the tour finished, I had about an hour and a half to the next one, so I headed down to the Robert O'Hara Burke Memorial Museum. From the town leaflet, "It houses a wide range of fascination collections dating from the 1860's", which explains stuffed birds and animals in the front room.
The "Street of Shops" reproduces a street in Beechworth during the gold rush era.
Leaving the shop fronts, there is this area, which as you can see if full of various display cabinets full of various stuffs.
There are displays on all sorts of things, from gold to war. I can't remember what the point of this one was, beyond the obvious.
Off to one side is a room with a collection of Chinese material.
That I'm thinking is a miner's cradle (for sieving alluvial gold). That's what it looks like.
As it says, a small dagger used by some miners as a weapon. I'm not sure what else you'd use a small dagger for. Cleaning your nails?
Death mask. Three guesses who.
Granite doorstep from Aaron Sherritt's home in the Woolshed Valley.
There were some interesting looking firearms in here but they wouldn't photograph from the top, and my tolerance for slow shutter speeds was almost nil.
Blurry as it is, I did have to include this. A stone bucket!
And one final photo "Burke's Last Dispatch".
I had half an hour left before the next tour started, so I grabbed some lunch: two slices of pizza and a cup of hot tea at the cafe on the right side of the intersection there.
The light coloured building is now Beechworth Gold but it was the Bank of Victoria. The opposite corner (not shown) was the Bank of New South Wales. The fourth corner (shown) is the post office.
As my tea was hot, I couldn't drink it and was almost late to the start of the Gold Rush tour, but it was just down the road so I got there a couple of minutes before it started.
This time I reminded myself to use the camera too.
The first official discovery of gold in Australia was in 1851, near Bathurst, New South Wales. The Victorian lieutenant-governor wanted in on it and offered a reward for any gold found in Victoria and within a few months finds were claimed at Clunes, near Ballarat and Warrandyte near Melbourne. The 'rush' was well and truly on. Victoria contributed more than one third of the world's gold output in the 1850s and in just two years the State's population had grown from 77,000 to 540,000! There were major fields at Ballarat and Bendigo.
At Beechworth gold was discovered in February 1852 and a large tent city soon sprung up. Anything else I say would be repeated from one of those two web pages, so I won't bother with the background.
Strongroom in the Sub-Treasuryused for the storage of office equipment from which 14,000 ounces of gold was taken by coach to Melbourne every two weeks, according to my leaflet. Further figures on website say 350,000 ounces were escorted to Melbourne in 1857, which averages out at 14,000 ounces per fortnight. And the coach was never robbed.
Spring Creek which ran through the field, and was diverted to, well, you can't expect to have photos AND words. I think it was to provide a better source of water for sluicing.
But-But Tree, used as an unofficial post office by miners who attached messages to it.
We paused here for a discussion on ways to split rocks without using explosives, such as drilling a hole and filling it with water when the temperature is expected to drop to -10oC. Minus ten?? *crosses Beechworth off places to live*
One end of the Rocky Mountain Mining Company's 800 metre tunnel under the town, built to reduce the water level in the creek.
Chinese Gardens. I assume they're not at their best in the middle of winter.
That's the flat area behind the Imperial Hotel where Kelly and Wright boxed for twenty rounds. Hang on, I thought this was the Gold Rush tour?
And that's the site of Charlie Knight's smithy, where Byrne's armour might have been made. I should just give in.
A former butchers, with the hooks where carcasses were hung up to drain.
Large carcasses were hung on this post, and drained into that stone "basin".
And with that, the tour is over and it's after 2 pm. Just enough time to duck into the Chinese Protector's Office which houses the Chinese Cultural Centre that closes at 3.
Most of photos from in here are blurry, and there's not really anything I haven't seen elsewhere. Yeah, I'm tired. I did pick up some interesting mini-posters.
The final building to visit is the telegraph station, opened in 1858.
I just sort of wander in here, read a few things and then wander out. Then I stare at the sign above. Then I go back in and send some telegrams. You fill in a form with one word in each box. The next day, these are sent via morse code to another station and from there posted to the recipient.
There is one more place I want to visit in the town, and that's some sort of carriage museum in a brewery.
As I'm walking up to it, I am thinking about tomorrow. The bus I am catching leaves at 12.15, which gives me the whole morning to fill in. I could spend it looking around the shops, no doubt, but I do remember reading on the VLine that they will make alterations and refunds as long as (thinks now) the trip hasn't been commenced or it's the day before? No matter, both still apply. I could leave earlier and have more time in Melbourne. Or might it be possible to stop to include another quick stopover somewhere.
I like that idea, but it relies on me being able to make these changes from where I am now, and I doubt there's a VLine office in a town of this size. Maybe I can ring up somewhere but there's still the problem of getting a new ticket before tomorrow.
That'll have to wait until I'm back at the hotel. For now I have a brewing and carriage museum to look over. You will have to supply your own words, for the most part.
That's Three Head Codd Patent Bottle Filler, but I'm sure you knew that.
This type of machine was commonly used throughout Australia from about 1875 until the early 1940's and in some country areas as late at 1960. The machine holds three "Alley" bottles which were filled with water and syrup, Carbon Dioxide was introduced and carbonation achieves by rotating the apparatus
Ice Box
Stephens Scarlet Writing Fluid
The rear room was full of slightly out of focus carriages and carts. We've all seen such things before, so I shan't bother with the photos, except for one.
Hearse.
Built at least 100 years ago in Beechworth, probably at W---r J. Edwards, in Ford Street (then opposite Tanswell's Hotel.) Drawn by a pair of black horses whose harness would have been supplimented(sic) by the addition of black ostrich feathers, ---- for adults and white for children.
Syphon Filler.
And so, sick of looking at things, I retreat back to the hotel. Here I find my ticket and go in search of a public phone box. It seems that yes, I can catch the earlier bus, and yes, I can stop off somewhere else along the way, and no, it won't cost me anything extra, and yes, I can probably get a new ticket written out at the newsagent around the corner, and if not there, at Wangaratta station tomorrow. Have I mentioned how wonderful the VLine telephone people are?
So I go around the corner, confuse the poor girl working there, get a new ticket written out and I'm all done.
Nothing else to do now, but go and check out the sweet shop across the road.
The Beechworth Sweet Co, on their website it says
Set in the historic gold town of Beechworth in North East Victoria is Australia’s finest sweet shop, The Beechworth Sweet Co. Established in 1992, The Beechworth Sweet Co is the original 'olde world' sweet shop which fits perfectly into the ambience of Australia’s fourth best tourist destination and trades seven days per week.
Fourth best tourist destination?? How the hell do you get a "fourth best tourist destination" designation?
After this, it's back to the hotel where I find some hot water for a shower! But there are two more things to do tonight. One, go to the supermarket and get something to eat.
Two, post a postcard! Which I do after sunset, hence these photos. And there is also one more thing in Beechworth I want to visit, but I'll do that first thing in the morning.
The morning tour was the Ned Kelly Tour, which I would have preferred in the afternoon, having had enough of the that the day before and at the courthouse. But
Here he starts telling us some story that I can't remember. It might have been about a trial or about Ellen Kelly, but it was something I already knew and our guide wasn't doing a good job of engaging my attention.
The sign beside these doors says "Between the years 1863-1870 Harry Power, the "Gentleman Bushranger", made seven appearances in the Beechworth Courthouses and spend considered time in these holding cells. Constructed in 1859, the Town Hall complex was also used as a court-house, such was the pressure of judicial business in those wild, early days. Below the hall there were storage vaults, a fire engine house and three prisoner cells. The cells had a spiral staircase to the court above."
I'm thinking Beechworth has the highest number of cells per capita in the country.
Inside, this is the least blurry of the photos. The photo on the wall is this on. Power was something of a highwayman, bailing up coaches and riders and robbing them. He took on a young assistant at one point, and during one hold-up the victim shot back and the boy froze, so Power had to drag him back to their horses. The boy also got arrested and taken off to Benalla where he was charged with being Power's accomplice, but fortunately for young Ned there was no enough evidence to try him with. When Power was eventually caught, he was sentenced to fourteen years at Pentridge, although I think he only served about half that. As a side note, he later spent some time working on the prison hulk turned museum Success, where he'd earlier been held as a prisoner.
After leaving here we went, um, I sort of have no photos on the card from this point until I went to the museum afterwards. Yes, I forgot to take photos. It apparently does happen and I take back any comments about the tour guide not engaging my attention.
You don't get out of it that easily though, because I went back later and took some!
As I said earlier, Aaron Sherritt lived bear Beechworth, as did the Byrnes's so a lot of the stories on the walking tour are about Joe & Aaron, such as this butcher's shop where they sold a cow one day and then Aaron returned later saying he wanted the hide to make whips from, so when the Inspector came by wanting to see the hide (and brand), the butcher was unable to produce it and found himself in the holding cell in the courthouse.
The Hiberian Hotel is said to be one of their favourite watering holes and where Aaron's young widow was taken after he was shot.
The non-denominational Common School where young Isaacs taught and was taught.
Office of William Zincke, solicitor, who represented Aaron, Joe, various Kellys and some of the sympathisers after the mass arrests.
After the tour finished, I had about an hour and a half to the next one, so I headed down to the Robert O'Hara Burke Memorial Museum. From the town leaflet, "It houses a wide range of fascination collections dating from the 1860's", which explains stuffed birds and animals in the front room.
The "Street of Shops" reproduces a street in Beechworth during the gold rush era.
Leaving the shop fronts, there is this area, which as you can see if full of various display cabinets full of various stuffs.
There are displays on all sorts of things, from gold to war. I can't remember what the point of this one was, beyond the obvious.
Off to one side is a room with a collection of Chinese material.
That I'm thinking is a miner's cradle (for sieving alluvial gold). That's what it looks like.
As it says, a small dagger used by some miners as a weapon. I'm not sure what else you'd use a small dagger for. Cleaning your nails?
Death mask. Three guesses who.
Granite doorstep from Aaron Sherritt's home in the Woolshed Valley.
There were some interesting looking firearms in here but they wouldn't photograph from the top, and my tolerance for slow shutter speeds was almost nil.
Blurry as it is, I did have to include this. A stone bucket!
And one final photo "Burke's Last Dispatch".
I had half an hour left before the next tour started, so I grabbed some lunch: two slices of pizza and a cup of hot tea at the cafe on the right side of the intersection there.
The light coloured building is now Beechworth Gold but it was the Bank of Victoria. The opposite corner (not shown) was the Bank of New South Wales. The fourth corner (shown) is the post office.
As my tea was hot, I couldn't drink it and was almost late to the start of the Gold Rush tour, but it was just down the road so I got there a couple of minutes before it started.
This time I reminded myself to use the camera too.
The first official discovery of gold in Australia was in 1851, near Bathurst, New South Wales. The Victorian lieutenant-governor wanted in on it and offered a reward for any gold found in Victoria and within a few months finds were claimed at Clunes, near Ballarat and Warrandyte near Melbourne. The 'rush' was well and truly on. Victoria contributed more than one third of the world's gold output in the 1850s and in just two years the State's population had grown from 77,000 to 540,000! There were major fields at Ballarat and Bendigo.
At Beechworth gold was discovered in February 1852 and a large tent city soon sprung up. Anything else I say would be repeated from one of those two web pages, so I won't bother with the background.
Strongroom in the Sub-Treasury
Spring Creek which ran through the field, and was diverted to, well, you can't expect to have photos AND words. I think it was to provide a better source of water for sluicing.
But-But Tree, used as an unofficial post office by miners who attached messages to it.
We paused here for a discussion on ways to split rocks without using explosives, such as drilling a hole and filling it with water when the temperature is expected to drop to -10oC. Minus ten?? *crosses Beechworth off places to live*
One end of the Rocky Mountain Mining Company's 800 metre tunnel under the town, built to reduce the water level in the creek.
Chinese Gardens. I assume they're not at their best in the middle of winter.
That's the flat area behind the Imperial Hotel where Kelly and Wright boxed for twenty rounds. Hang on, I thought this was the Gold Rush tour?
And that's the site of Charlie Knight's smithy, where Byrne's armour might have been made. I should just give in.
A former butchers, with the hooks where carcasses were hung up to drain.
Large carcasses were hung on this post, and drained into that stone "basin".
And with that, the tour is over and it's after 2 pm. Just enough time to duck into the Chinese Protector's Office which houses the Chinese Cultural Centre that closes at 3.
Most of photos from in here are blurry, and there's not really anything I haven't seen elsewhere. Yeah, I'm tired. I did pick up some interesting mini-posters.
The final building to visit is the telegraph station, opened in 1858.
I just sort of wander in here, read a few things and then wander out. Then I stare at the sign above. Then I go back in and send some telegrams. You fill in a form with one word in each box. The next day, these are sent via morse code to another station and from there posted to the recipient.
There is one more place I want to visit in the town, and that's some sort of carriage museum in a brewery.
As I'm walking up to it, I am thinking about tomorrow. The bus I am catching leaves at 12.15, which gives me the whole morning to fill in. I could spend it looking around the shops, no doubt, but I do remember reading on the VLine that they will make alterations and refunds as long as (thinks now) the trip hasn't been commenced or it's the day before? No matter, both still apply. I could leave earlier and have more time in Melbourne. Or might it be possible to stop to include another quick stopover somewhere.
I like that idea, but it relies on me being able to make these changes from where I am now, and I doubt there's a VLine office in a town of this size. Maybe I can ring up somewhere but there's still the problem of getting a new ticket before tomorrow.
That'll have to wait until I'm back at the hotel. For now I have a brewing and carriage museum to look over. You will have to supply your own words, for the most part.
That's Three Head Codd Patent Bottle Filler, but I'm sure you knew that.
This type of machine was commonly used throughout Australia from about 1875 until the early 1940's and in some country areas as late at 1960. The machine holds three "Alley" bottles which were filled with water and syrup, Carbon Dioxide was introduced and carbonation achieves by rotating the apparatus
Ice Box
Stephens Scarlet Writing Fluid
The rear room was full of slightly out of focus carriages and carts. We've all seen such things before, so I shan't bother with the photos, except for one.
Hearse.
Built at least 100 years ago in Beechworth, probably at W---r J. Edwards, in Ford Street (then opposite Tanswell's Hotel.) Drawn by a pair of black horses whose harness would have been supplimented(sic) by the addition of black ostrich feathers, ---- for adults and white for children.
Syphon Filler.
And so, sick of looking at things, I retreat back to the hotel. Here I find my ticket and go in search of a public phone box. It seems that yes, I can catch the earlier bus, and yes, I can stop off somewhere else along the way, and no, it won't cost me anything extra, and yes, I can probably get a new ticket written out at the newsagent around the corner, and if not there, at Wangaratta station tomorrow. Have I mentioned how wonderful the VLine telephone people are?
So I go around the corner, confuse the poor girl working there, get a new ticket written out and I'm all done.
Nothing else to do now, but go and check out the sweet shop across the road.
The Beechworth Sweet Co, on their website it says
Set in the historic gold town of Beechworth in North East Victoria is Australia’s finest sweet shop, The Beechworth Sweet Co. Established in 1992, The Beechworth Sweet Co is the original 'olde world' sweet shop which fits perfectly into the ambience of Australia’s fourth best tourist destination and trades seven days per week.
Fourth best tourist destination?? How the hell do you get a "fourth best tourist destination" designation?
After this, it's back to the hotel where I find some hot water for a shower! But there are two more things to do tonight. One, go to the supermarket and get something to eat.
Two, post a postcard! Which I do after sunset, hence these photos. And there is also one more thing in Beechworth I want to visit, but I'll do that first thing in the morning.
