Golden Nugget Discovery Tours
Golden Nugget Discovery Tours conducts small group ecotours, specialising in the Goldfields region of Victoria, we also conduct tours of the Great Ocean Road, Daylesford and Spa country, Grampians National Park and the Pyrenees wine region.
You will discover on our Victorian Goldfield region tours, a wealth of heritage that the early European and Chinese goldminers have left behind, from abandoned goldmines to majestic streetscapes of Bendigo and Ballarat. You can relive the goldrush days by going down a mine at Bendigo’s Central Deborah goldmine or riding a stage coach at Sovereign Hill Ballarat.
Our tours take you to the Goldfields region State and National Parks, with our 4WD vehicle, we take you off the beaten track or take you on short walks, where you can discover wild nature at its best, with wildflowers, wallabies, box ironbark forests and goldrush heritage. The Castlemaine Diggings Heritage National Park and Paddy’s Ranges State Park are two good examples.
Experiences
Sustainability Commitment
Golden Nugget Discovery Tours is committed to sustainable tourism. We do this by using V/Line trains ins to move you in and out of Melbourne to lower our carbon footprint and to provide you with a better experience. On our tours and in our office we carry out sustainable actions to reduce our environmental impacts. We support Foundation for Australia's Most Endangered Species (FAME) and Australian Wildlife Conservancy in their endevour to
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Daylesford + Castlemaine Discovery Tour
Discover and Indulge in the Spa Country of Daylesford and the Hepburn Springs, the largest collection of natural mineral spa water springs in Australia, then off to Castlemaine travelling by 4WD through the Box – Ironbark forest of the Diggings Heritage National Park. You get to walk through the park with your guide to see the goldrush heritage and wild nature
Whilst in Castlemaine you visit the magnificent Buda Historic Home and wander down the gold heritage streetscapes.
You also visit Maldon, one of the most intact gold towns in Victoria. Have a walk and shop in Main Street, have coffee at the Penny School Art Gallery, checkout the views from Mt Tarrengower.
Ararat + Western Ranges Discovery Tour
Journey with us to the western goldfields of Victoria, these were that last goldfields to reveal the golden treasure.
On route to Ararat, you stop off at Mt Buangor & Mt Langi Ghiran State Parks for a 4WD and short walk to see waterfalls, wildflowers, wallabies and wild nature.
Chinese miners travelling from South Australia found the rich Canton Lead at Ararat, learn about their life on the goldfields at the Gum San Chinese Heritage Centre.
You will visit Avoca at the foot of the Pyrenees Ranges, taste the fabulous Pyrenees Wines, discover the gold heritage, and experience the wild nature.
Ballarat Discovery Tour
Ballarat was the first of the great goldfields in the 1850’s goldrush; your first stop is Blackhill lookout, which overlooks Ballarat and region.
Visit the Eureka Centre, which chronicles the uprising and the battle that took place, see the original Eureka Flag at the Ballarat Art Gallery.
Stroll down Lydiard Street with your guide and see one of the best heritage streets in Ballarat. Learn about the Aboriginal Culture at Kirrit Barreet.
Explore Lake Wendouree, with its wetland habitat & gardens. To provide habitat for the local koala’s you get to plant a tree.
Discover the picturesque town of Buninyong and M Buninyong, an extinct volcano, offering memorable views.
Go back in time to the 1860’s at Sovereign Hill, and re-live the goldrush days, pan for gold, go down a mine, ride a stagecoach and shop in Main Street plus a whole lot more.
Grand Victoria
This small group personalised signature tour lets you experience many regions of Victoria, from the plains and peaks of the Port Phillip Bay region
to the central Goldfields with its goldrush history, to the mineral springs and spa country of Daylesford and the ex volcanoes and lakes of the Volcanic Plains. Go on a Murray River Ecotourism cruise, travel through the Wimmera to see the silos of the Silo Art Trail. Venture into the valleys and along cliffs to see wildlife, waterfalls and spectacular views of the Grampians National Park. You will be treated like a guest and not a tourist as we go off the beaten track to see these parts of Victoria.
Bendigo Discovery Tour
Discover Bendigo with us, and we will take you to the highlights of what was once the richest city in the world. Your entry to Bendigo is into the surrounding Box-Ironbark forests, where your guide will interpret the forest and the silent gold rush relics within. Then your adventure goes deep underground at the Central Deborah Gold Mine, you walk with a miners lamp on your helmet to show you the way as your guide interprets how the precious metal was once extracted from the quartz reef running deep beneath Bendigo. Back on the surface, you get to travel on the historic trams throught the streets of Bendigo, the conductors explaining the wonders of the city. Chinese culture is experienced at the Joss House & the Golden Dragon Heritage Centre. Visit Australia’s oldest pottery at Bendigo Pottery and taste fabulous wines at Balgownie Winery.
Maryborough + Central Goldfields Discovery Tour
Travel to the Golden Triangle, one of the richest gold areas in the world.
See the town of Clunes, where the gold rush started, the town is full of heritage buildings.
Visit the central goldfields city of Maryborough, view the town from the lookout, walk amongst the heritage listed buildings and majestic Railway Station, see the old abandoned goldmines around Dunolly and Tarnagulla,
With our 4WD, we take you off the beaten track, to the place where the largest gold nugget in the world was found.
Walk amongst the unique Box Iron bark forest of Paddy’s Ranges State Park, which is home to rare native birds, animals and wildflowers.
Victorian Volcanic Plains / Kanawinka Geotour
his small group personalised signature Geotour lets you explore and discover the geology, waterfalls, lakes, mountains, lava tubes, Aboriginal and early European cultural impacts on these plains to present day Australian lifestyle.
The gently undulating volcanic plains of western Victoria are the third largest volcanic plain in the world and are formed of lava flows up to 60 metres thick and are studded with 400 volcanoes which have been erupting over the past five million to eight thousand years ago.
The Kanawinka Geopark is Australia’s most extensive volcanic province, and has been internationally recogised as the Kanawinka Global Geopark and is one of the most significant and largest provinces in the world. The Geopark stretches across South Western Victoria and South East South Australia. The Kanawinka region gets it name from the geological fault that stretches from Portland (Victoria) to Naracoorte (South Australia). Kanawinka is an Aborignal term meaning Land of Tomorrow””
Western Victoria Touring Route
This small group personalised signature tour takes you to the Must See places of western Victoria. Along your journey of discovery, you will experience the Great Ocean Road, one of the best coastal drives in the world, the Victorian Volcanic plains, the third largest volcanic plain in the world, the Grampians National Park, with its rugged mountains and wildlife, the Pyrenees with its wineries and the gold rush history of Ballarat.
Outback Victoria
The Outback Victoria small group personalised signature tour travels through small farming towns and over flat fields of wheat to get to the Outback National Parks.
We explore the arid landscape of yellow gum and black box woodland of the Little Desert National Park where the endangered Lowan or Mallee Fowl survive. We travel to the vast Mallee park of the Wyperfeld National Park to experience the animals and birdlife of the Mallee and floodplains and shifting sand dunes of the north. You get to see the pink lakes of the largest desert national park, the Murray-Sunset National Park, which has vast areas of undisturbed vegetation. The most northern of the Outback parks is the Hattah-Kulkyne National Park, which centres on an impressive lakes system with an abundance of wildlife, majestic river red gums, ancient buloke trees amid rolling sand plains and the distinctive Mallee for which this region is renowned.
Victorian Southern Ocean Coast
This small group personalised signature tour takes you along some of Victoria’s most picturesque and wildest coastlines of Bass Strait and the Southern Ocean.
The Great Ocean Road from Torquay to Princetown is one of the great scenic coastal drives of the world. The road is carved into cliffs and mountains bordering Australia’s most rugged and densely forested stretches of coastline.
Golden Victoria
This small group personalised signature tour takes you into the golden heart of Victoria.
Victoria’s frenetic goldrush of the 1850’s has left a lasting and vivid legacy. You can see the evidence in almost every Goldfields town and city. In the splendid streetscapes of Ballarat, Bendigo, Maldon and Dunolly. In grand buildings such as the Maryborough Railway Station and the Market Building in Castlemaine. You can re-live the goldrush at Sovereign Hill in Ballarat and at the Central Deborah Goldmine in Bendigo.
Goldfields Track Walks
Come walk with Golden Nugget Discovery Tours to experience the Goldfields track that the gold miners took to travel from Buninyong, through Ballarat to Daylesford, and beyond to Castlemaine. The Goldfields track provides a European style walking walking experience. The track traverses through the forests of the central highlands, pastoral country and gold diggings of the Castlemaine Diggings National Heritage Park. Regional cities and gold rush towns are always nearby, with a host of accommodation, cafes, restaurants and wineries, all the ingredients for a memorable walking experience.
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VIC - Goldfields Region