Sunday 14th August Ravenswood

 It was a short journey to our next destination, the old mining town of Ravenswood. We settled into our spot and set off exploring. I was of course very happy and interested about all the heritage buildings and old mining sites and equipment scattered throughout the town. We had a brief look together and then decided that Rob might enjoy a round of golf on the free local course while I continued my exploring! This worked well. I was able to visit the local museum and had a lovely conversation about the town with the local historian as well as visit other sites and the cemetery, while Rob played a challenging 9 holes of golf. The lady I spoke to about the town, explained that gold was discovered here in the 1860’s. It continued to be mined until the 1940’s. Then just over 30 years ago, the mines were reopened and a new mining company started mining gold again. The town’s population has dwindled as most of the workers at the mine now are FIFO so the population has not grown since the mines decline in the 1940’s. My cemetery visit proved to be interesting on several levels. First just getting to the cemetery was a little challenging as the most recent mining has taken place all around the cemetery and the mining company has had to build new roads into the cemetery.  The headstones revealed the harsh life of living in a mining town 130 plus years ago. While at the cemetery, I could hear the noise of heavy machinery working the nearby open-cut mine and just 50 metres down the road from the cemetery was a lookout with views of the mine. After collecting Rob from the golf course we returned to the lookout to watch the mining. From here we visited the historic Imperial Hotel for a drink and dinner. We had our meal outside and watched a beautiful sunset.  

The golf course proved interesting, 9 holes and grass greens, 3cms high! The pins hadn't been moved in some time, the grass had grown right over a couple of them. Then there were the 100's of kangaroos and wallabies feeding on the grass and the long grass on the fairways where the recycled water is used was 15cm long. Lost 2 balls on the 2nd  fairway because I couldn't find 'em. Mostly par 3's, had fun..