Journalling:
On our visit to the Thames Goldfield Museum, I finally got to see first hand a little of what it must have been like for my gg grandfather, Samuel Harris to work there in the late 1860s. We visited a tunnel so cramped and low I felt claustrophobic. It was hard to imagine working there for eight hours a day. The stamper battery that smashed the rock to find the gold was deafening. We had ear muffs. The miners didn’t. I couldn't help reflecting on Sam's description of life at the diggings : "The nearest picture I can give you of the gold field is just like a rabbit warren at home. The hills are penetrated by men as thick as bees. Gold is got in hard quartz stone which requires heavy machinery to crush it. Sometimes the stone does not contain gold then you are reduced almost to poverty, nothing for working besides what you pay for crushing your stone. I do not intend staying in the diggings any longer than this coming summer. I may be lucky yet. I am getting tired of being always from home."

Credits:
Bountiful Blessings
Gold Sprig from Golden Season
Both by DSP Designers and from the Falling for You CD
Sketch by CAthy Zielske