Central Deborah Mine, Bendigo – underground

Central Deborah Gold Mine operated from 1939-1954 and extracted 929kg of gold, which would be worth about $50 million today.
From website

Above ground.

First

Tour starts here.


So we travel down in the cage to level 2, and then down ladders to level 3, which is 85.3 m below ground (just belong the horizontal line there). That doesn't sound very far. You can see it goes down a long way beyond that, although I'm told these days levels 15-17 are under water.

Cage - 2

There's two gates there, a cage goes down on one side while another goes up on the other.

"Stand up against the side and face in."

There were four people in there when we went down. Very squishy. They told me these things are suppose to hold 6, or was it 8?, people. All I can say is they must have really liked each other.

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St John the Evangelist Church, Richmond

1

St John
The Evangelist
Catholic Church
1836
Australia's Oldest Existing
Catholic Church
MASS TIMES
1st & 3rd Sunday
of the month 8.30am
2nd, 4th & 5th Sunday
of the month 11am

From back

Before going inside, I was thinking the 1836 year seems quite late for an "oldest" building, so I pulled a bit from the Archdiocese of Hobart website to give some background:

Until 1821, the Catholic residents of the colony - convicts and free settlers - had no priest. In that year Father Philip Connolly arrived. His flock, scattered over a wide area, must then have numbered about 1,000 people. Until 1835, the Father Connolly laboured alone. In that year, the Most Rev John Bede Polding arrived at Hobart on his way to Sydney to take up his appointment as Bishop. The Holy See had appointed him Vicar-Apostolic of all Australia. Tasmania remained part of his Vicariate until the coming of the first Bishop of Hobart, the Most Rev Robert William Willson, who landed in May 1844.

And if you're wondering where they went in those early years, from a second page Previous Bishops and Archbishops of Hobart:

The story of the Catholic Church in Hobart began in 1822 when the pioneer priest, Father Philip Conolly, built Tasmania’s first Catholic place of worship just a stone’s throw from the present [St Marys] Cathedral. Dedicated to St. Virgilius, it was a poor building of the simplest style and construction.

Front

Door

Inside

Inside

Front Window

Window

Back

Outside

And there's the cemetery, which from this direction looks like a typical country town cemetery.

Penitentiary Chapel, Hobart: Part 2

This is a continuation of Penitentiary Chapel, Hobart: Part 1
In the second part, we look at the other side of the building. Note the building on the left that looks like a two-storey house, the very enclosed yard and the cut-off wall on the right.

Plan

First though, a wonky plan 🙂 It helped me make sense of what was where. It also shows how the two underground passages and the security tunnel (in blue) all go to the central little room. At least they would if I'd put the doors in.

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Church of England, Hadspen

This is the Church of England at Hadspen. Thomas Reibey of nearby Entally (the house in the other photo) at various times archdeacon of Launceston, state politician & premier, start building this church in 1868 but stopped after a couple of years.

And it sat like this for most of the next century -- just walls.

It was finally completed and opened in 1961.

Anglican Church

This is the other side.

Other side

The lighter row of stone at the top (top row in the second photo, more in the top photo) is the newer part. New vs old is particularly obvious when you look at a window.

Window, left

On the other side, new work starts about half-way up and around the window, it's sort of obvious.

Inside, right

From the inside (original above, newer windows below).

Inside, left

Church stained glass windows are annoying. Like all stained glass, it's intended to be viewed from inside, so if you're taking photos from outside, you can't get anything decent. So:

Window, stained glass

Inside

Courthouse, Beechworth

Originally published

Courthouse

From the information leaflet provided:

Built in 1858 of local honey coloured granite at a cost of £3730. It was the central Court of the "Northern Bailiwick" during the gold rush era and closed as a Court House in 1989 after 131 years of continual service. The Court had many roles. It served as a Magistrates Court, Court of Petty Sessions, County Court, Court of Assize (Supreme Court), Insolvency Court, Mining Wardens Court and Court of General Sessions. The Court sat every 12 weeks when the appointed Judge would arrive from Melbourne in his horse drawn vehicle. The lesser Courts were held at more regular intervals.

Court

The benches form the Public Gallery (men only), the table and chairs are for the bar lawyers and prosecutors. On the right is the Jury Box. On the other wall, beside the fireplace, is the Dock (which figures in this image, which is reproduced on the wall there) and beside that the Reporters Bench. At the front of the room, are two Witnesses Boxes (only one visible here), the Clerk of Courts (table?) and the Judges Bench.

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HMB Endeavour, 2012

These photos were taken when I was doing a stint of tour guiding on board. I took photos during the quiet times. I also did this in 2007 and added my guide "spiel". So that one has better words and this one has better photos.

HMB Endeavour, replica of an 18th century collier converted to a navy ship filled with scientists.

Morning

Today's post is an overview of the ship as you'd encounter it on a visit. The attention to detail is incredible: clothing & blanket are hand sewn, hand woven, from the original places where possible; letters are on handmade paper, hand copied from originals; all the ship's measurements are as accurate as they could make them. She might be a secondary source, at best, but a fascinating source.

Once onboard, there are about ten positions (depending on how many guides are available) each with a guide who'll tell you something about that part of the ship. If it's very busy, each group should only be at each position for 2 minutes. At quieter times "they should be through in an hour, unless they want to stay longer and talk".

Entrance

So you go onboard here.


Then up to the foredeck, where I've still managed not to be stationed, so you'll have to make do with just images.

Bow

Although I will draw your attention to the flag.

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HMB Endeavour, 2007

These photos were taken when I was doing a stint of tour guiding on board. I took photos during the quiet times and then wrote up my "spiel" as Live Journal post (which is what I've shared below). The camera was a small one a friend gave me after mine broke, so the photos are small/low resolution. The 2012 post has better photos. And yes,  a squirrel appears in some. It has escaped from here.

Endeavour (launched 1993) is a replica of James Cook's ship, originally built as a collier but convert to an exploration vessel by the Royal Navy in 1768. The modern ship was built to be as close as the original as possible so there are some interesting features such as the lack of headroom as a result of adding extra accommodation for navy officers and scientists.

Just before you go aboard, have a look towards the stern.

Stern carvings
Endeavour has no figurehead, but some lovely stern carvings. Unfortunately, there's a fence across the wharf so you can't be behind to see all of them. This is the side window of the great cabin.

Towards foredeck
On board, the first stop is the foredeck. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to spend any time here so I don't know the talk.

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James Craig, Barque

This is an old post with small photos. I have better photos now but more pressing things to work on, so if you're interested, comment below and I'll push it to the top of the "To Do" list.

Stern
James Craig aka Clan McLeod, iron barque, built 1874, and used for general cargo. In the 1920s, she was sent off to end her days as coal hulk in Recherche Bay, although soon after that she was abandoned and beached. There's a photo from that period on the Sydney Heritage Fleet website, along with more information. She was rescued in 1972, restored and then relaunched in 1997, and now lives in Sydney when they're not visiting other ports.


These photos were taken at the 2005 Wooden Boat Festival in 2005 (obviously an ocean-going ship). These are my first "sailing ship" photos so there's not as many as usual 🙂 and I can't remember many of the details, so most of them don't have captions unless I can tell what they are from the photo. Also, the camera doesn't like dark-hulled ships.

Foredeck
"Fo'c'sle Deck" the sign says.

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Polly Woodside, Barque

Polly Woodside aka Rona
Iron barque, built 1885 in Belfast.
647 tons, 192 feet long, max speed 14 knots.

A trading ship, coal mostly, from the end of the era of sail, although she remained in use to the 1920s, when she was converted to a coal hulk.

Original Photos
Under sail
Under sail, from a different angle
"Three masted barque about to be broken up on the rocks."
"On Her Way To The Seclusion Of Hulkland"
Before restoration

Second

We're going to start at the bow, walk down the starboard side, then back along the port side. Then we'll go below, have a look at the hold and then the aft accommodation.


Bow sprit

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Mail van

From Chums, 4 January 1893


OK maybe there is a bit more to it. So, here is A Run with the Mail Van:

The Western Mail is one of the most remarkable trains in this country. It leaves Paddington station each evening at nine o’clock, and goes its way to the Land’s End like a great feeding machine, supplying in its transit nearly every western town with letters. It was with this train that I was to journey, and at half-past eight o’clock I found myself in Paddington Station, chatting with Mr. King, the superintendent of the two mail vans, the general custos rotulorum, and the especial guardian of all the important documents and parcels which go from London by this mail. The whole scene was then very busy. The terminus glowed with dozens of fine huge electric lights, porters were bawling, passengers were hurrying, luggage was being hurled here and there, a great express locomotive was being backed against the night express, and all was confusion, bustle, and method.

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Carriage House, Entally

Entally Estate: the original house was built 1819 and modified over the following decades. The yards at the back have a number of farm buildings constructed over the same period, including this carriage house and stable building.


The stable area is on the right. The carriage area is on the left.

This a rough plan to give an idea of the relationship between the different parts of the building. The area over the back is more storage for carriages, that faces onto a different yard.

Photos of stable & tackroom

CARRIAGE/COACH HOUSE


Door on left goes through to a small room (Livery or Coachman's room the panel says).


This room has a fireplace and, to the right, stairs that lead to the upper level.


Upstairs.


Door for loading grain etc. to be stored up here.

Stables, Entally

Entally Estate: the original house was built 1819 and modified over the following decades. The yards at the back have a number of farm buildings constructed over the same period, including this carriage house and stable building.

The stable area is on the right. The carriage area is on the left.

This a rough plan to give an idea of the relationship between the different parts of the building. The area over the back is more storage for carriages, that faces onto a different yard.

Photos of coach storage area

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Richmond Gaol


Richmond Gaol was built in Tasmania in the 1820s as part of Governor Arthur's reform of the convict system.

In one of the rooms is a model of the buildings as they are now, so I'm borrowing that to show everything in relation to everything else.

1 Entrance
2 Courtyard
3 Original gaol building
4 Men's solitary
5 Smaller courtyard
6 Cookhouse
7 Women's solitary
8 Women's room
9 Gaoler's house

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Duyfken

This is an old post with small photos. I have better photos but more pressing things to work on, so if you're interested, comment below and I'll push it to the top of the "To Do" list.

Replica 16th century Dutch ship

Duyfken

Duyfken is a replica of a small ship sent by the Dutch East India Company to explore beyond the known. In 1606 they charted the Cape York Peninsula (the big, pointy bit in the top, right corner) on the first recorded voyage by Europeans to the Great South Land.

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May Queen

This is an old post with small photos. I have better photos now but more pressing things to work on, so if you're interested, comment below and I'll push it to the top of the "To Do" list.

Restored 19th century ketch (built 1867)
Two masts, with the front mast being the taller, both fore and aft rigged.

May Queen

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