Day 5 - Meet the Animals - Healesville Sanctuary

Today we are heading off towards animal hunting at Healesville Sanctuary(HS).

Healesville Sanctuary is located in the stunning Yarra Valley region 65 kilometres or one hours drive from Melbourne. It is one of Australia’s most recognised attractions, showcasing more than 200 species of Australian wildlife, only one hour from Melbourne. It provides closser opportunity to Australia’s wildlife, featuring unique experiences with kangaroos, koalas and amazing birds of prey. This is Australian flora and fauna at its best! Go to this link for more information http://www.zoo.org.au/HealesvilleSanctuary

At 9.15am, we left from Glen Waverley and we stopped by a pie house - The Pie Shed, to get some food for our lunch afterwards at HS.

This was the first time that I see so many varieties of pies in front of me. The pies ranged from vegetables, fruits to meat. Most importantly, it is cheap! The price is between AUD 5 to AUD 8. At to my astonishment, they have Kangaroo Pie also! Uncle Martin got one Kangaroo Pie for himself, but for me and connie, we got ourselves a chicken and a pork pie respectively.



After we got our lunch packed, we headed off to our destination without wasting any time. We reached HS at about 10.45am. The admission tickets are AUD23.60/pax. The opening hours is from 9.00am to 5.00pm. Typical australian flexible working hours. I wished I can get a job in Melbourne too!

Along the journey, we stopped by and shoot some very nice scenery of wineyard.

Typically autumn feel~

We were provided a map of HS. One thing attracted me alot is the "Meet the Keeper" session. It provides a great way for visitors to understand more about the Australian wildcare. We started by visiting the "Meet the Keeper" - Kangaroos.

According to the spokeperson, The red Kangaroos we were seeing normally are more shy compared to the wallabies. There difference in between this 2 species that came from the same biological group. A red kangaroo weights more and it is more shy compared to the wallabies.



There was a session where we were allowed to touch and feed the wallabies! They are so cute and friendly. Greyish long fur and strong mucscle could be felt all around the body when we touched them. They are fed on carrots and leaves. These wallabies has a very strong white teeth which can be seen when they are chewing their food.



After the feeding session we headed towards the Birds of Prey - the highlight of today. Healesville Sanctuary's Birds of Prey is a stunning display showcasing our native Australian raptors.

We took some figs while waiting for the show to get started. Delicious!

Set in the park’s stunning outdoor amphitheatre, Birds of Prey is a thrilling aerial display demonstrating the magnificent flight and hunting skills of several iconic Australian species, such as the Peregrine Falcon, Black Breasted Buzzard, Barking Owl, and of course, the breathtaking Wedge-tailed Eagle.



Diving and soaring with speed and precision, these Birds of Prey have you on the edge of your seat from beginning to end. These eagles are well trained and they have really a razorsharp eyesight where they wont lose out on anything eg the food thrown into the air by the trainers.


Right after the Birds of Prey session, they was a boomerang throwing session. Boomerangs originated from australia where the ancient ppl used it to hunt for food. Today, boomerangs are mostly used as sporting items. There are different types of throwing contests: accuracy of return; aussie round; trick catch and etc. I got a boomerang for myself too. It costed at a price of 10 AUD and i did managed to have a pic with the presenter. In my heart, I am thinking of where to practice my boomerang in Malaysia. Any suggestions? Haha.


One of the few scenery in Healesville.


The porcupine.



It is about lunch time, and we had our picnic session buy eating our pie we bought. The pork pie connie bought as a pig imprinted on it. So cute!



Took some photo around the carpark during out lunch too.

Brown Cuckoo-dove.

The Laughing Kookaburra.

We can see the grey headed flying fox and black winged stilt also.



Australian king parrot.

Superb lyrebird is a well singer.

Besides that, there are some reptiles on show in HS.

Can you differentiate where is the tail and where is the head? This is called the Shingleback.

The Eastern Bearded Dragon, very poisonous and a ferocious eater.

The Taipan.

Next, we hanged around the zoo and we saw koala's too. This time we got to see koala nearer compared to the one in Koala Conservation center in Phillip island.

See how near we are too them? They are enjoying their lunch while having some sun bathing. Very cute.

Look, how strong paws they got.

This is the animal clinic in HS.



In addition, we saw a person from national geographic sitting and recording the behaviour of a dingo.

The dingo are fed on meat. It is a type of dog. There are 1 pair of them.

Normally, dingoes do not bark as much as most domestic dogs, which can be very loud, and they howl more frequently. Three basic howls with over 10 variations have been recorded. Although humans are not natural prey for wild dingoes, there have been a number of instances in which people have been attacked by them. So better becareful of this species.


We departed from HS at around 530pm. We had our dinner at "The International" in one of the Bistro along the way back. In short, an enjoyable journey for today.

Day 4 - Strike Gold at Sovereign Hill, Ballarat

Waking up this morning, it is colder compared to yesterday. We have decided to go northwest towards Sovereign Hill, located at Ballarat Town for Gold Panning!

Let me recite some history in brief about this "Gold Hill". Sovereign Hill recreates Ballarat’s first ten years after the discovery of gold in 1851 when thousands of international fortune-hunters rushed to the Australian goldfields in search of riches. By day, Sovereign Hill is where Australia’s history comes to life! It's just like stepping back in time – from the hustle and bustle of Main Street where costumed ladies and gents parade their new-found wealth, to the excitement of the Red Hill Gully Diggings where you can pan for REAL gold.

Allright, enough of historical story above. We started our journey around 11am from Melbourne to Ballarat town via Western Freeway. The journey is about 110km which took us about 75 mins or more appropriately from Glen Waverley, it is about 120 min, which is 2 hours.



At about 1.30pm we reached Sovereign Hill. Uncle Martin bought us the entry ticket - $ 37.50/pax and without waiting, we rushed into and started our Gold Panning journey.

We were provided the map of Sovereign Hill, and to our astonishment, it is BIG. We started to worry whether we are able to conquer every place stated in the map. Anyway, this didnt burn our desire to enjoy the time around this old town being built to show the younger generations on how their predecessors erk their way to live.



The first sight we saw are those Chinese Camp around the Gold Panning area. These camp are really classical and it shows how's the life of the Chinese Miners.






Just beside it, it was the Gold Panning area, we can see there were alot of young school children panning for Gold! Infact, there are on a learning trip provided by their school. Australian education emphasize on exposure. As the old saying say, "You listen you forgot; but, you do you remember". These youg kids are so good in panning. I did asked them on how to pan as well.





Let me share with you all.
4 steps:
1. Find where is the gold
2. Submersion
3. Panning
4. Separation and Retrieval

Do you all understand the 4 steps above? I think you are not. Want to know the answer?
The answer is, do visit Sovereign Hill. :P

Allright, just joking. Let me guide you all.
Step1, Since gold is much heavier than water (about 19 times heavier), the gold stays on the bottom and gets caught in the sand in slow moving areas around bends of the stream and along the shore. It also tends to get stuck in small crevices in rocks and wedged in pieces of wood. Try to find places like this along the stream.



Step2, After that put about 4 handfuls of material into your gold pan. Submerse the pan in the stream. While holding the gold pan under water, move the pan in a circular motion so that the lighter materials will be carried out of the gold pan. Don't move it too rapidly or you may lose gold along with the rocks and sand. Keep doing this until about half of the material in the gold pan is gone.

Step3. Lift the pan out of the water and begin swirling it around with it tipped slightly to the side where the riffles are. When all the water is gone dip the pan into the water again, bring it back out, and start swirling again. Keep doing this until nearly all the material in the pan is gone.

Step4. Use a suction pipet to spray water into the pan and seperate any nuggets or flakes of gold from the sand in the bottom of the gold pan. The pipet is also useful to suck up small flakes of gold and deposit them into a display vial or other container. If you didn't find any gold, don't worry. It takes practice, patience, and a little luck to find, but keep trying. There's nothing like finding gold in the bottom of your gold pan!

Interesting right? We did tried out, but time is limited. After the gold panning, we made our way to the Gold Smelting Works to see how an $ 80,000 pure ingot being poured! This is no joke. I will not describe much in this, a picture show a thousand words. When you all see the picture you will undertand what I mean.


After the show, we took sometime around the store and we did bought some souveniers of real gold for our rememberance. We made a Gold Plated Coins at $10 each with our love message written on each gold coins.




Besides that, there is a machine to calculate on how much we are worth in gold based on the calculation from our weight. Just to share with you all, I am worth $2,148,845.06 and connie is, $1,394,864.34. Astonishing! We have a valuation certificate too. So dont play play! Best in Melaka and Batu Pahat, and some people say Muar. Haha.

After that we continue our photography journey around Sovereign hill, where we visited the Red Hill Mine, Bowling Center, Tinsmith, church and etc...









In addition, there some free coaches ride around Sovereign Hill. I can't describe ever place we went, as it is too many. But, the photographs below will explain everything. So enjoy reading..



At about 5pm, we have to leave for the Gold Musuem located opposite Sovereign Hill as the closing time for both of them is 5.30pm amd 5.00pm respectively.

The Gold Museum extends Sovereign Hill's story of Ballarat a majestic provincial city built on the wealth derived from the great Australian gold rushes of the 1850s. The rest are just histories.

We managed to capture a picture with the statue of Sir Henry Bolte, the founder of this musuem. Salute!

Pictures are more interesting! So enjoy seeing the pictures as per below.. :P

We had our dinner at Sofia restaurant back at Glen Waverley at about 8.30pm. It was a italian pasta dinner. The dinner was quite nice and it was not a too tiring day for us and we off to bed early today. Good night...