Goldfields Mining Centre Visit

Room 5 at the Goldfields Mining Centre

Here we are at the Goldfields Mining Centre in the Kawarau Gorge on Wednesday 30th May.We were there to learn about gold and pan some gold because we are studying gold with Mrs Hill during topic. We are sitting on the steps by the Chinese huts. We are all VERY cold. Dave the tour guide showed us around the village. We saw a stamper battery and a sluice gun working. Man, it was loud! We also saw a cradle. The huts were very small, so were the beds!

2 very large gold nuggets

Wow! Look at these big pieces of gold. They were very heavy. the small one is from Central Otago and the bigger one is from Australia. We all got to hold the nuggets and found out that gold is different colours in different countries and different areas. It was cool to touch the gold!

Molly, Willow, Esse and Vivian outside an old hut

We are on a tour of the Goldfields Mining Centre. We are standing outside the Chinese hut near the stamper battery. Inside the hut there is a pan, stretcher bed and a fireplace. It was carefully made out of stone and the floor was made out of wood. Even though it was awesome it is just a reconstruction because the real Chinese huts wouldn't have had any wood as there wasn't much wood available.

Luke, Matiu, Ben, Troy, and Clyde closely watching the gold panning demonstration.

Dave showed us how to gold pan. After he had finished his demonstration he found a little speck of gold and gave it to Reed. Now that we knew how to gold pan, he let us have a turn. We had to put gravel in the pan, dip it in the water and shake it lots and lots! If you found gold you put it in a tube with water and got to keep it. Lots of Room 5 found gold. Our hands were freezing at the end!

Annalee, Clyde, Reed and rest of Room 5 look for gold in the bottom of the pan.

Dave the tour guide taught us how to gold pan. Dave was cheeky! There were long troughs full of freezing cold water. First we got a pan and shoveled gravel into it. We put lead pellets on the gravel because lead is only slightly lighter than gold so if we still had the pellets in the pan when we were finished we had done it right! Then we put the pans in the freezing cold water and swirled it around. We took the big rocks out. It took a lot of hard work but most of the class found gold. We had a great time gold panning.

Annabell and Tea in front of a gold display at Alexandra Museum

When we left the Goldfields Mining Centre we went to the Alexandra museum. Annabelle and Tea are standing in front of a display which had 28 different types of gold that was all found in the Central Otago area.We had a little treasure hunt where we had to find the answers to some gold mining questions. Shani was our guide at the museum and she told us a lot of interesting facts about gold and dredges. She gave us all a sticker. We left the museum to go home after a long but fun day.

Room 5 looking at paintings created to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the discovery of gold in  Central Otago

We went to the Alexandra Art Gallery which is part of the Museum. Mrs Hill read us a poem about a Scottish miner finding gold while we looked at the paintings that matched the poem. The paintings were done for the 100th anniversary of finding gold in Central Otago and are on display again because we are now celebrating the 150th anniversary of the discovery of gold.we were all very tired when we got to the Gallery but it was worth it because we had a spectacular day.

A big thank you to all the parents who helped to make this such a memorable day for room 5!