Old Mogo Town ~ Gold Rush Colony

Just ten minutes drive south of Bateman’s Bay is Old Mogo Town – The Gold Rush Colony.

This would be our home for the next three nights. The miner’s cabins are huge and well appointed. It was nice for us to all have some space and spread out a little for a couple days.



When you stay onsite you have free access to the Gold Rush Colony whenever you wish. Here they have recreated (and in many cases have used original buildings) as closely as possible the main street from the local gold rush town.



 In a gorgeous setting, we explored this area on more than one occasion. In this shack anywhere between 8 and 16 people would have lived. It is smaller than the cabin we are staying in just up the hill.



When you first arrived to Mogo, with gold in your sights, but no actual money, you needed to build yourself a shelter.

The idea taken straight from the aboriginal people, these humpy’s are what the miner’s called home, until hopefully they made enough money to build themselves a small shack to move in to.




It was pretty quiet when we visited and often we were the only people walking these streets.



The yellow building is the laundry, if you could afford to have your clothes laundered that was.



The local post office, here on the left, was the most important building in town. Not only did it take care of all the mail, it was the place to purchase your miner’s license and to cash in your gold.
By law all gold found had to be sold to the government.



The kids enjoyed pretending what it would’ve been like to spend a night at the Inn. The bath water was only changed after every 10th person!



Many miner’s simply had to sleep back to back sitting up, exactly as the kids are. What a way to get a great night’s sleep.


Of course no town is complete without an out house or two.




Here in the barber, come dentist, come doctor and undertaker, they displayed death masks.

The tour guide informed us this is apparently a mummified head of a local miner, not simply a mask. Personally, I think that’s a bit of an old wives tale that’s been passed on through the generations.

I’ve googled death masks and as yet haven’t been able to come up with anything that describes heads of people being mummified. If you happen to be able to shed any light please let me know.

Even if it is only a mask, it was still pretty darn gruesome and not one of us was game to touch it!!!



Inside the Post Office.




The laundry house.




These women certainly had their work cut out for them.



Lego Lover could barely even turn the washer, imagine it full of water and wet clothes.



The fully functioning miniature steam train only runs when there is enough people around to make it worth their while.



The kids were pretty impressed with the chairs carved from tree logs.



One of the original gold mines is right here for you to take a peek at. However the short stroll is taken through a newly reconstructed mine. This one has slightly more room and is considerably safer.
Still quite dark and dreary though inside.



There is always at least one friendly staff member on hand to help you out with any questions and to give you a hand at Gold Panning. Yes you can pan for and find real gold here.



Any in there? You won’t be finding any nuggets of gold here though, much to the kids disgust!! Whilst the gold is real, it is only tiny slithers of the glistening stuff.



But it’s still pretty exciting when you find some!



Little Surfer Dude cooks us up some supper in his miner’s kitchen.



The gardens are lovely here, with an abundance of flora and fauna. Including the resident peacock, ducks, geese and chickens that all roam freely around the grounds.



The cabins are nestled just a short stroll up from the Gold Rush Town and a small pool area is situated on the right, across from the cabins.

We enjoyed our time here. It would be fun to see the town alive when they hold special days throughout the year.