Bransby & Friends’ Oz Trip 2025

Shan and Waz came over this morning for a farewell cuppa and to check out our vans as they are thinking of upgrading. It was lovely having one last catch up with them before heading off towards Merredin. I can’t believe it’s almost over. We stopped at Southern Cross for lunch and to stretch our legs. It looked like a bit of a ghost town, lots of things closed or closed down. We continued on as the temperature soared and we arrived at Merredin with the temperature gauge showing 43 degrees. We went inside and met the lovely Ju and Shaun and relaxed in the aircon in their beautiful home. We had a great afternoon and evening. Marie and Brendan joined us with their kids and we had a delicious barbecue dinner.  After dinner the cards came out. We had a round of A$&hole with Shaun taking the trophy for the final time. Ju then got out the game Taco, Cat, Goat, Cheese, Pizza and the hilarity began. It was so much fun and a great way to spend our final night of our journey.

We had a lazy morning this morning, sleeping in and then  enjoying a slow cuppa while discussing our plan for the day. We decided on the Hannan’s North Tourist Mine The size of the trucks is incredible, you don’t realise how big they are until you are standing in them, or in them! We sat in the refuge chamber and watched a video explaining all about how it worked. From there we walked past the Paringa Headframe  and boilers. We went in to the Dynamite Room which was in great condition and had awesome pictures and stories. One man’s job was to sit and watch the thermometer to make sure it didn’t get too hot in there. He only had a one legged stool to sit on though so if he lost concentration he would fall off. We went in the pay office, and the drilling room, and then listened to Paddy tell his story in the Paddy Hannam tent. The boys had their fun in the Two-Up Shed. We finally got our photo with our gold bar. Rach and Shaun had to have a pic in front of their bank. The Miner’...

 We set the alarm early this morning to head out onsite.  We had to check in and get our visitors passes and our PPE before we could get entry onto the mine site. Then Waz took us on a tour of the site, explaining the process…. …before we had to don our hard hats and safety glasses to enter the Gold Room. Once inside the first room, we had to remove our boots and scan our cards to gain entry to the next room. Then we had to put on their boots before we could enter the viewing area to watch the gold pour. It was like a big cauldron full of molten gold that was then poured into the tins like loaf pans. It was amazing to watch. Then they cooled them before tipping the gold bars out and cleaning off any excess slag. Then….we were allowed to hold them. I could barely lift it with two hands, it was so heavy. The one I held was bar number  57657. The biggest one was 17 kilograms worth about 3.5 million dollars. The pour we watched was the first of two they were doing that day. T...