BALLARAT
Nobody has seen Australia who has not
seen a goldfield, and though with a certain
reluctance, for the way was long and the trains
unprovided with restaurant cars, we decided to
visit one from Melbourne, whence, as one counts
distance in Australia, they were easily accessible.
The choice seemed to lie between Bendigo and
Ballarat; they were equal as far as we were
concerned, but there was something about the
name of Bendigo that expressed a smug prosperity,
while Ballarat suggested something of the unbridled
spirit of adventure and undisciplined
audacity of the pioneer. We elected in favour
of Ballarat. We started very early in the morning,
as you have to do in Australia if you want to get
anywhere, feeling full of enterprise and prepared
for any hardship. There had been a riot in
Ballarat, they told us, quite a serious affair, with
military intervention. The line to Ballarat runs
at first through the flat country that we had
already traversed, covered with the odd little
