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locals go about their business in 19th-century garb and atop horse carriages. Stores and workshops line the thoroughfare with a blacksmith hammering out horseshoes and a candle maker displaying his waxy goods. Aproned grocers operate Wild West versions of a 7-11 convenience store and jewellers sell everything from the genuine article (you guessed it—gold) to tourist trinkets. There’s a tavern bar that offers old time bowling and a museum displaying rocks and coins from the era. You can take a stage coach tour of the surroundings and in the mine you can see a replica of the second biggest nugget in the world, a 69kg (152-lb.) monster known as “the Welcome Nugget.” If it all gets too much you can lie down in the local hotel and literally sleep on a goldmine.

It was gold that made the south eastern state of Victoria. The early convict settlers at the turn of the 19th century were literally tripping across the stuff in what must have been a supreme and bitter irony as they discovered their open jail was literally paved with gold. The real rush began in 1851 and it saw the biggest migration of fortune seekers in modern times. The population increased by half a million over 10 years as Scots, Irish, Cornish, and Chinese all got wind that there was something in those hills and it shines. Soon the region produced 20 million ounces of gold, one third of the global output. Melbourne took off as a centre of trade and commerce and Australia in general began to stand on its own two feet. The mines are also credited with establishing the country as an independent political entity. An uprising by disgruntled miners in 1854 known as the Eureka Rebellion was brutally repressed by the British colonialists but it lead the way to a fairer system of civil rights and one man one vote.

On the river it is one man and his pan as lines of visitors fish for some glinting rock. Children especially love Sovereign Hills and history buffs are in their element. It just so happens that element is gold. —CO’M

www.sovereignhill.com.au.

Tours: Melbourne Hosted Tours ( 61/3/9755-6085;www.melbournehostedtours.com). Melbourne’s Best Day Tours ( 61/3/9397-4911;www.melbournetours.com).

When to Go: Year-round.

Melbourne (115km/71 miles).

$$$ Crown Promenade Hotel, 8 Whiteman St., Southbank, Melbourne ( 61/3/9292-6688;www.crownpromenade.com.au). $$ Alto Hotel on Bourke, 636 Bourke St., Melbourne ( 61/3/8608-5500;www.altohotel.com.au).

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The Haro Wine Battle

Wine Not War

Haro, La Rioja, Spain

Try not to arrive in La Rioja’s medieval capital Haro on June 29. On that day, as soon as you step on the street complete strangers will douse you in buckets of wine and cackle with glee. You have inadvertently walked into the town’s famous Wine Battle, an annual orgy of wine throwing that would make Bacchus run for cover. Thousands gather on the city’s streets armed with buckets, basins, dustbins, giant water pistols, and even back-mounted crop sprayers with the intention of drowning each other in wine. They apparently go through 49,210 liters (13,000 gal.) every year. Everybody is dressed in white but they don’t stay that way for long. Soon the teeming, screaming mass is covered head to toe in purple, with sticky hair and stinging eyes. More savvy veterans cover their cars seats with plastic, their cameras with plastic wrap and some even wear goggles. All the antics are accompanied by brass bands and tractor drawn floats and culminate in a night fiesta on the town plaza with fireworks and more wine ducking.

Haro is 100km (62 miles) south of Bilbao and the center of the country’s wine making tradition. La Rioja is Spain’s most prodigious wine region with many historical and prestigious wineries surrounding Haro. Such was the region’s wine making importance; some of the wineries even had their own train platforms to dispatch wine to all corners of the country and farther afield to the Spanish Empire. La Rioja’s wineries are famous for aging rich and fruity wines that are literally a shame to throw away. The historical city of Bilbao is farther to the north on