Ballarat Gold Museum

My drive to Ballarat was pretty miserable, with heavy rain and strong winds most of the way. When I reached my first stop, the Ballarat Gold Museum, the rain had eased slightly but it was still very cold and blustery.

I would love to be able to say that the Gold Museum was well worth the visit, but the reality was that it was quite disappointing. The exhibits might have been interesting, but the lighting was so low I couldn’t really see them, and I could not read most of the labels telling me what they were.

The only areas that had sufficient lighting were the special exhibit area and the coin display.

The special exhibition, Re-awakening the Dragon, was centred on a Chinese ceremonial dragon and items from an old Chinese temple. It was interesting and well presented, and included some very intricate embroidery.

There were a lot of gold coins from all over the world on display, as well as a few other items such as broaches and coin holders. I found the broaches most interesting, many of them incorporated mining tools like picks and shovels.