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Day 26 - Thurs 10th Dec, 2009 - Sheba Dams
Today's Lesson: There are some amazing towns out there in Aus.
<-- Sheba Dams near Hanging Rock
We went into town for petrol and drove around Nundle for quite a while. It’s a beautiful historic town with lots of background and history, and plenty of things to see and do. We met Anne at the Visitors Information Centre, and she was wonderfully helpful and showed us the rock collection that was donated by the family of the late Gil Bennet. It’s really very impressive and well worth a look. Anne also had a number of maps and other great info. The Tourist Info Centre is located just next to the Nundle Caravan Park. Don’t miss it!
 We fossicked for gold and gemstones all over the place, trying to follow the maps that the lovely Anne gave us, but we didn't have a lot of luck. Unfortunately, it turns out that we have no idea what we're looking for! Still, the looking is a lot of fun. We tried to search the net last night for pictures of gems when they come out of the ground --- but we couldn't find any.
The Hanging Rock Cemetery was very small, but interesting – and very sad. Most of the deaths that were listed were infants. Times must have been really tough back then for kids.
Two memorable graves were those of May Ashton and her daughter.  One of the Ashton circus Ashtons came to Hanging Rock to prospect for gold in the 1850s, and his wife Mary fell prgnant and gave birth to a little babay girl. Mary died 11 days later on 27-8-1852, and the baby died two months after that! Times were tough.
In 1998 the Ashtons (yes, it's still in the family!) of the current Ashton's Circus came and played a 150 year memorial gig near Hanging Rock and erected a plaque at Mary Ashton's Grave. Very touching.
<-- Sheba Dams near Hanging Rock
Today's Lesson: There are some amazing towns out there in Aus.
<-- Sheba Dams near Hanging Rock
We went into town for petrol and drove around Nundle for quite a while. It’s a beautiful historic town with lots of background and history, and plenty of things to see and do. We met Anne at the Visitors Information Centre, and she was wonderfully helpful and showed us the rock collection that was donated by the family of the late Gil Bennet. It’s really very impressive and well worth a look. Anne also had a number of maps and other great info. The Tourist Info Centre is located just next to the Nundle Caravan Park. Don’t miss it!
We fossicked for gold and gemstones all over the place, trying to follow the maps that the lovely Anne gave us, but we didn't have a lot of luck. Unfortunately, it turns out that we have no idea what we're looking for! Still, the looking is a lot of fun. We tried to search the net last night for pictures of gems when they come out of the ground --- but we couldn't find any.
The Hanging Rock Cemetery was very small, but interesting – and very sad. Most of the deaths that were listed were infants. Times must have been really tough back then for kids.
Two memorable graves were those of May Ashton and her daughter. One of the Ashton circus Ashtons came to Hanging Rock to prospect for gold in the 1850s, and his wife Mary fell prgnant and gave birth to a little babay girl. Mary died 11 days later on 27-8-1852, and the baby died two months after that! Times were tough.
In 1998 the Ashtons (yes, it's still in the family!) of the current Ashton's Circus came and played a 150 year memorial gig near Hanging Rock and erected a plaque at Mary Ashton's Grave. Very touching.
<-- Sheba Dams near Hanging Rock
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