Tuesday, 2nd January 2007 (4398 views)

A museum charting the history of Australia's 1850s gold rush has been hit be severe flooding but it will not close, according to reports.

The Gold Museum at Ballarat in Victoria opened to tourists today despite heavy rain last night causing a lot of flood damage.

Storms saw a rain fall of 39 millimetres which flooded parts of the museum and damaged a 1890s organ, computers as well as infrastructure.

Leanne O'Brien, a spokeswomen for the museum, said: "A lot of water got into the main storage area, but thankfully due to the quick response of the staff and their family members that were there they managed to get all the contents out, they were actually kept in plastic bags so they managed to avoid any loss there."

Victoria is currently enjoying somewhat of a gold renaissance with production restarting at many of its gold mines.

The Gold Museum aims to tell of the wealth derived from Australia's first gold rush and features a collection of gold nuggets, alluvial deposits, gold coins and other priceless gold artefacts.

It also sells contemporary gold jewellery made in Australia.

 

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