Winter 2019 - OZ 4 Bunbury and Gnomesville

2019 - OZ  4   Bunbury and Gnomesville

After our Mint visit in Perth it was time we started our car journey. We drove about 2 hours south along Highway 2 to the city of Bunbury. We only drove about 2 hours (since we spent the morning at the Mint) after we left Perth and told ourselves to not drive late into the day. We are now on the road and we have some basic guidelines. There is no rush getting on the way each day. We wake up, have breakfast and then drive. If we like a place we stay for a full day or so. We do not drive AFTER 4 pm or close to it. We do not have destinations. We stop at whatever we find along the way. Yes, we take side trips if the ‘attraction’ is kind of ‘off’ the path and we just ‘doodle’ along. We have time. 

The Crooked Carrot Cafe

While the temperatures are hot, the car has A/C, so it’s not bad. We get gas when the tank shows half full. We carry water, we carry some food. We are in the car after all.

This is not a race, this is an ‘exploration’, we try to find what is along the roads but we have no clue as to what is really out there.

Tea Cups Indicate the Washrooms

Case in point is our first Lunch Stop at the Crooked Carrot. We found this place by accident.

 

This is Australia; there are many ‘quirky’ places. Once you dig in to these places you will find some ‘strange’ stuff. Like the bathrooms signs. Carol was directed to the ladies washroom by the girl telling her: “Find the tea cups”. Not as easy as it sounds! What do they mean when they say… find the tea cup? Having time makes one look around and finds surprises everywhere.

Downtown Bunbury

But Bunbury is our first real stop because?   It just fits our time schedule. No special reason to stop here.

Yet, as it turned out, it is a nice town. We stayed 2 nights.

I made reservation for a hotel on the internet, I mostly used Hotels.com. Whenever we can ‘guesstimate’ where we would end up for the day, I made a reservation on line. Yet there were many days when we just made a town, drove around, found a hotel and moved in for the night. We did NOT always follow a strict schedule and our reservations were made only if it became evident that we had no better choice than to think ahead.

Motorcycle Parking

We were kind of ‘drifters’ finding what was along the way, along the roads. 

Carol is very good in reading brochures, finding spots, having a sense of what is good.

 

So now let’s start our journey not day by day, but from attraction to attraction. You’ll see, it’s quite a bunch of experiences and is actually very varied. 

Outstanding Sunset Across From Our Hotel

When we arrived in Bunbury we just aimed for the hotel we booked on line and kind of ‘crashed’. We ate something near the nondescript hotel but then had the most amazing after dinner walk. The sunset that evening was outstanding. It is hard to put it into pictures, but since the hotel we booked was right near the Ocean we had a wonderful view of the clouds, the dipping sun and even the wind aided us in feeling extremely comfortable. Balmy air swirled around us and other evening walkers were about. It was the ‘golden hour’, the best time of day.

Beach Walkers

Our hotel had no breakfast, so we went to town to find a breakfast place. Easy enough with a car; our breakfast place was near the Information Center, near the old train station. So we ate well and then, as serendipity wanted us to do, visited the official office of the Town’s Info Center.

We just walked in; Carol wanted to find some brochures about the area around us. The ladies behind the counter were very friendly and we started chatting. Remember, we have time!

Clifton Motel

During our chat we found out that there is a town called Gnomesville, which we have to visit. We found out that we can also have a tour with Troy tomorrow, an Aboriginal Native, who can serve as our guide. We found out we can get a better rate at ‘another’ hotel in town if we want to stay an extra day. We found out a lot of small stuff but that is why we are here. We take what is along the roads.

This Way to Gnomesville

Gnomesville:  about 30 minutes out of Bunbury is a town inhabited by gnomes. Gnomes from all over the earth come here to spend a few years or even their whole lives. Those gnomes are very small, as you can see by this one that we found in the middle of an old, felled tree stump. This stump of a 350-year old Jarrah Tree measured 40 meters high (131 feet) and 7.2 meters 23 feet, 7 inches).

350 Year Old Jarrah Tree With a Tiny Gnome Burrowed Into the Centre

Those gnomes live all over, but somehow they are much more concentrated in Gnomesville. I guess they like being crowded, being gawked at by tourists. 

One Tiny Corner of Gnomesville

Now, I know it is hard to believe that there is a town called Gnomesville, but as you can see… I’ve been there and brought home pictures to prove it. Ask Carol… she took all those pictures… and I have lots more if you still doubt us. There is a town called Gnomesville in Australia, you can actually Google it if you are a doubting Thomas. Our pictures, though, should be proof enough.

Hi There

Checking Out the Scenery

Game of Gnomes?

A Harley Dude

Step Carefully - They Are Everywhere

A Soccer Game

Hi to the Grey Gnomads

A Game of Chess

Some Were Hiding

Better Gnomes and Gardens

3 Men in a Tub or Hear No Evil, See No Evil, Speak No Evil?

Some Had Their Own Home

Gnome Sweet Gnome

Another Part of Gnomesville

Winter 2019 - OZ 3 The Royal Mint of Perth

2019 - OZ  3   The Royal Mint of Perth

The Perth Mint

Gold!   Wherever there is gold, people go to find it, dig it up, rub it, hold it, and admire it. The urge to possess gold in some people is very strong. It’s called Gold Fever and it can be contagious. History is full of episodes of owning gold. The Gold Standard was the economic backbone of the U.S. for a long time. French Aristocracy loved their gold coins. Gold covered God Statues show the attraction for gold.      

 Gold, Gold, Gold.

Sculpture of the 1991 Gold Strike

Carol found an advertisement that Perth has a Royal Mint and a Museum with a little show to make us understand how gold is processed at this Mint.

She also said, it’s not far away, we can walk to it. It’s just a few blocks away from our Hotel.

That's a Lot of Weight Gold

Right!  We found out it was something like 30 blocks away, took us about 90 Minutes to walk to and all that in heat of 32+ degrees Celsius. Phew! But we made it.

And the visit was ‘worth’ it.   How much worth?   For Carol it was worth her weight in Gold. The Mint told her ‘if’ she were to be paid for her weight she would be worth:  $ 4,495,750 dollars.

Mine was a tad more, ahem:  $7,064,750 for me, it just shows you…. I am no light weight!

Tour Guide Explaining the Process

Pouring Off the Molten Gold

It was an informative visit. A ‘performance’ of a meltdown helped us to understand how gold is melted into bullion. A whole small ‘smithy’ was set up, with the instructor really melting down gold and then forming it into a brick. Fascinating!

After Cooling With Water - A Gold Bar From Nuggets

 Ah, GOLD! It was found and dug up in Western Australia and so much gold was found that Australia decided to build a mint in 1899 in the city of Perth. It was the first Mint operated by Australia. In the first 2 decades after opening the goldfields in Western Australia 800 TONNES of gold were processed. In Monetary value?

Just over 100 million pounds Sterling:   Depending on the rate and time:   over 130 million U.S. $ worth. It would be worth a lot more if the information given to me was the number in the year 1900.

Gold brings out the greed, the speculation, the drive for riches.

Stamping Gold Coins

Possession of gold does something to the brain: it disregards ‘nice’. It squanders resources. Gold might cause a mental breakdown, the NEED to possess it is like a radiation illness, you can’t feel it but you can see the bad results in later years. 

Weights - 1896

Australia had many ‘gold rushes’. Some not reported, some in the Eastern Half of the continent, there is a whole slew of people digging for gold, for treasure, for a relief of poverty, for all kinds of reasons. Gold takes over, reasoning is left behind. Gold = Money.  Some people just can’t get enough of it.     

There were some really nice examples of the nuggets found near Perth in the Museum.

Golden Beauty

"Golden Beauty” is a blob of gold weighing 11.46 KG (368.60 ozs) in today’s gold prices worth: $ 694,490.32 dollars.   A good find if you could just ‘find’ it.

 Newmont, Normandy Nugget, 2nd Largest Still In Existance

But how about this one:   the Newmont, Normandy Nugget found in 1995 in Newmont, Normandy, Western Australia. It’s a nugget with a weight of 819.02 ozs.   Worth   $ 1,543,140.15 dollars.

And a guy just walking around in a dried up riverbed, found this blob of gold, right there, under his feet, kind of ‘stepped ‘ on it.

More Huge Nuggets

No wonder men and women scour the neighborhood in the old goldfields looking for GOLD.

You might think this was then and that does not happen any longer?  Oh, yeah?

I met a fellow who walks around the old goldfields with a metal detector. He finds small amounts, small flakes of gold here and there but at $ 1884.13/oz in today’s market it does not take a lot of GOLD to make some serious money.

Yes, he just walked around, picks up gold and then sells it.

Yes, he was kind of a hippy kind of a guy, but hey… Gold is gold. That was his ‘work’. He lived off of it!  One (1) gram of gold is worth (depending on purity) between $ 30 to $ 50 dollars.

A 1 Million Dollar Coin

Did you catch the Gold Fever yet?   All these numbers make you think?   

All you have to be is ‘lucky’!!!

Other Side of the Coin

Just in case you wonder what BIG looks like… here is a picture of just ONE gold coin on display at the mint. This ONE coin weighs a TON and it is worth over $ 50,000,000.00 dollars. That is Fifty Million… count all the zeros.

Australian Souvenir

Carol was lucky!  She received a nice pendant made with Gold. No, not ‘of’ gold, I said ‘with’ Gold. Pure Gold items at the mint, in the store were beautiful but also extremely pricey.

Here are some pictures of some items for sale in the Perth Mint.

Exquisite and Expensive

But Its Not a BMW