Bendigo rises to the challenge

This has to be my favourite day of this trip so far. We woke early (nice and warm) in the cabin we had booked as a break from camping so we weren’t late to meet Bev at the White Hills Cemetery. Bev is a volunteer and historian here who was helping us find the whereabouts of Amber’s GGG Grandparents and their three infants who were all buried here in the 1860s.

Unfortunately, none of them had headstones remaining, but we did find out they were buried in the independent section, not a specific denomination. We also were treated to a tour of the cemetery including stories of some of the other residents (including the black American who was one of the miners charged for the Eureka uprising). We left Bev giving her a copy of the John Grimson’s life story which she was absolutely thrilled to receive, saying she would be including his story in her tours of the cemetery in future.

Next stop was the Talking Tram tour which takes about 45 minutes. Our particular tram was build in 1914 and was beautifully restored. The tour took us past all the beautiful buildings of Bendigo, and told stories of old resident who would have been here at the time of John and Emily.

Next stop was the Bendigo Pottery where Amber and I had signed up for a half hour pottery lesson. This was so much fun! We learnt to throw a pot and shape it on a wheel. Our creations will be fired and sent to us some time later this month. Bendigo Pottery is well-known nationwide, and we have now made some of our own! Our instruction, John, was a lovely man who had studied his craft in England. He was off to Antigua tomorrow where his son had married a West Indian woman. We had plenty to share, as you can imagine!

There was one more thing to do before leaving Bendigo... try and track down areas where John and Emily had lived. We knew their second daughter, Marion, was born in Adelaide Flat; they had lived for a while in Dead Horse Flat and New Chum; that John had suffered a mining accident in Kangaroo Flat and his will included two weatherboard homes: one in Little Bedford Road and one in New Chum, near Mr Lazarus’s machine.

How exciting it was to find Lazarus Street, New Chum Street and Adelaide Gully (in Kangaroo Flat)! Some of these streets even had old cottages which might have been similar to those John mentioned!

It was well after 4pm when we finally dragged ourselves away from Bendigo and headed for Echuca. We didn’t have time to stop in the town on our way through, but headed to Morning Glory Holiday Park about half an hour further, on a quiet section of the Murray bank. What a fantastic spot!

We set up camp and set a fire, made friends with the neighbours then played cribbage along the river bank before bed!  Certainly a ten out of ten day!