People who follow BTT on facebook would know that recently Budget daughter and myself went on a road trip to Charlie’s Trousers, aka Charters Towers, The Towers, or simply The World. Today’s post is all about Venus Battery Charters Towers.
It was a trip down memory lane, in that my good friend used to live outside of Charters Towers, and our family have spent many visits enjoying the wide open expanse of dry grass and quiet scrub land that was her home. There is something about wide open spaces that is liberating.
Read more about things to do from Townsville here.
No. 1 Attraction – Venue Battery Charters Towers
Following Gill Street 4.5 km out of town we parked and picnicked in the shade of a lone tree while we waited for the Venus Battery tour to get underway. We had no idea what to expect of this century old gold extraction plant.
I discovered on this tour that beauty can be found in the most unlikely of places.
Previous to the tour I had no inkling of how gold was extracted from rocks. Having seen gold in stones before I just assumed they cut it out somehow. How wrong I was – we spent 75 minutes finding out exactly how this is achieved. You have no idea how complicated the extraction of gold from the finely crushed rocks is. Lets leave it at that shall we.
While our wonderful tour guide explained the extraction process, my eyes wandered over the beautiful old timber beams, pulleys, wheels and horse drawn carts that remain in good condition today. My camera went on a clicking spree as you can see. It is quite incredible that the building and machinery are so well preserved.
Our guide was dressed to suit the times of a century ago, or maybe it was just his own Tower’s style. Anyway, he managed to look authentic. Another thing of note was the introductory and closing film. Both unique, the first incorporated the narrator incorporated by film into a period scene diorama, and the second, the same man – a ghost – projected onto a falling wall of water. Both were impressive.
The back of the battery where the tailing ponds once were.
If you are interested in learning about the process of extracting gold then this tour contains very detailed information. If you are like me and like old things and finding beauty in strange places, you will also love this tour.
Thanks for this post. I love this sort of tourism – unexpected joys in your own country. Do you think the tour would work with kids? Danielle
Hi Danielle, I am not sure if it would be good for kids. I know I found it hard to stand and listen to the explanations of the processes. I occupied myself by taking photos. Would your oldest boy be able to take photos? I think it might end up with one parent on “keeping the kids entertained” duties. Depends on your capacity for that type of thing. It was $15 per adult.
Gosh I love your photos! I think I would have done the same 🙂
We went to a tour in Bundaber (to the ginger factory) and it was also information over load. Still cant remeber everything that was said that day.
I reckon that sometimes they do that on purpose, so that you go back again to hear what they said!
I like that you did the tourist thing for the day.
Hi Lisa, It was a life-saver having my camera along that day – the building and all the workings were in such good order. The tour took 75 minutes, but I think it could have been done in about 30 minutes. Having said that, there was a man there who obviously knew a lot about gold extraction and he kept on asking questions, so we got pretty in depth explanations. It was a lovely day.
Jan
[…] VENUS GOLD BATTERY, on the Ghosts of Gold Heritage trail, is Australia’s largest surviving battery relic. […]