School Educational Visits Tours & Activities
Our tours encourage students to discover the importance of the Gold Rush era with hands on activities in these original gold rush areas. To appreciate the natural environment in which the hopeful miners toiled and families lived, the hardships they endured to survive.
Package Tours
Eureka
- 10 Tours, 6 Meals, 2 Nights Accommodation
- Village Treasure Hunt
- Hawkins Hill
- Bald Hill Underground Mine
- Golden Gully
- Cemetery History Tour
- Gold Panning
- Irish Town Walk
- NPWS Stamper Battery
- NPWS Visitor Centre
- Damper Making
2017 PRICES
EUREKA PACKAGE
$126.50 + GST $12.65 = $139.15 PER STUDENT
Gold Rush
- 6 Tours, 3 Meals, 1 Night Accommodation
- Village Treasure Hunt
- Hawkins Hill
- Bald Hill Underground Mine
- Golden Gully
- Cemetery History Tour
- Gold Panning
2017 PRICES
GOLD RUSH PACKAGE
$79.00 + GST $7.90 = $86.90 PER STUDENT
Day Trip
- 3 Tours, Lunch
- Village Treasure Hunt
- Bald Hill Underground Mine
- Gold Panning
2017 PRICES
DAY TRIP WITH LUNCH
$25.50 + GST $2.55 = $28.05 PER STUDENT
Activities
Village Treasure Hunt
- Duration: Approx. 1 hour
- After a brief discussion by a guide in period costume, students, teachers supervising and the guide walk around in the village of Hill End.
- Students, in groups find answers to 12 questions pertaining to the historic buildings.
- The group with the most correct answers receive a “golden reward” for their effort.
- Pens and clipboards provided.
Hawkins Hill
- Duration: Approx. ½ hour
- A most spectacular 180 degree view over the Turon River Valley on Hawkins Hill, still known today as the richest 400 metres in the world for reef gold concentration.
- This tour allows students to view the terrain in which the miners worked appreciating its hardships.
Bald Hill Underground Mine
- Duration: Approx. 1 hour
- 80 metre walk into the tunnel. Guides demonstrate and explain the mining methods of the gold rush. Students can see for themselves the quartz reefs and the geology of the mine.
- At 80 metres the students can climb 30 metres up the mine shaft via 10 ladders and 10 platforms to the surface. This is optional but be assured, it is a highlight of their visit.
- Bald Hill Mine is approved by the Department of Trade and Investment and Mine Safety.
- Guides are fully trained and this tour has been conducted for over 20 years
- Students must wear helmets (PROVIDED) and covered shoes. No thongs or sandals allowed.
Golden Gully
- Duration: Approx. 1 hour
- Golden Gully is an alluvial field (gold panned from the water and dirt) worked by both the Chinese and European (Australian) miners.
- A talk with the guide from the way gold is deposited, the geology, the Chinese influence.
- Students then have a chance to look for quartz crystals (to appreciate) the environment.
- This tour certainly encourages LOOKING and FEELING the environment. Many a budding geologist Is born here.
Cemetery Tour
- Duration: Approx. ½ hour
- The Cemetery tour impresses on students the hardships of life in the 1850’s 1860’s and 1870’s.
- The struggle for infants and young children to survive. The lack of services we take for granted today- e.g.flushing toilets, clean water a hospital and a lot more.
- A talk on these subjects and students are then asked to find two particular, interesting head stones pertaining to the above. The student who finds these interesting head stone receives a “golden reward” for their effort.
- This tour is most important for the students to gain an insight into the actual lifestyle of the era.
Gold Panning
- Duration: Approx. 1 hour
- A highlight. Panning is conducted in Tambaroora Creek in the same way as the hopeful miners.
- It is a safe shallow area and guides demonstrate to the students how to pan.
- We provide the pans and the bottles for any gold recovered.
Irish Town Walk
- Duration: Approx. ½ hour
- Accompanied by a guide students can safely view steel grated mine shafts. An appreciation of the small “holes in the ground” the miners constructed. A walk to the remnants of Irish Town.
National Parks Stamper Battery
- Duration: Approx. 15 minutes
- On site in the grounds of the NPWS Visitor Centre a static machine used to crush to hard quartz rock to release its treasure- gold. Guide explains the workings of this machine.
- There are also horse drawn vehicles of the era to be investigated.
National Parks & Wildlife Visitor Centre
- Duration: Approx. ½ hour
- Once the original hospital built in 1873 now the Visitor Centre.
- Students can view a “sitting room” of the era. A Chinese “artefact room”, various items from the era and the hospital room complete with many scary medical instruments. An audio visual is also available.
Damper Making
- Duration: Approx. ½ hour
- After a long afternoon out in the environment students return to the Ranch to make damper.
- In groups of boys and girls they make one damper per group and we cook it in the commercial kitchen. Students have their damper with golden syrup (optional) for their supper. Teachers welcome a “cuppa” whilst the damper making is happening.
