I HAVE a vivid imagination, especially when I’m visiting places of historical significance.
When I was exploring Schonbrunn Palace in Vienna I pictured Maria Theresa’s brood playing in the palace’s long hallways, when I was standing on the patch of Vietnamese land that once accommodated the Khe Sanh camp I could see swarms of helicopters filling the sky, and when I was in Buenos Aires I imagined Eva Peron gliding along the Recoleta footpaths.
My imagination doesn’t just work in far-away lands, and it’s been known to kick into high gear even when I’m a stone’s throw from home.
I’m in Ballarat today, taking a trip through Victoria’s historic Goldfields, and when I was walking the rural city’s streets looking for shops and galleries to write about I could easily picture the characters of the gold rush.
So you can imagine my excitement when I discovered I would be staying at the very historic Craig’s Royal Hotel, and the thrill of actually checking in and opening the door to my grand suite on the top floor.
Craig’s Royal Hotel was built in 1853, just two years after the first nuggets were found in nearby Clunes and one year after prospectors starting arriving in Ballarat, and in 1855 the Eureka Stockade Royal Commission sat in one of the posh pub’s rooms.
The hotel has retained many of its bygone features, including a lazy lift that only works once those inside have closed two heavy doors, and the rooms are decorated with the same style of furniture that would have greeted 19th-century guests.
And there have been some famous guests over the years.
Mark Twain stayed at the hotel in 1895 when he was in town to speak at the Mechanics’ Institute, Dame Nellie Melba sang from the Reading Room balcony in 1908, and Horatio Kitchener crashed there when in Australia establishing our military.
More recently Donald Bradman and Robert Menzies were guests, as were King George V and Queen Mary when they were simply the Duke and Duchess of York.
So, as I drifted off to sleep in my canopy bed, I pictured elegant ladies and handsome gentlemen gliding around the dance floor in the ballroom, scruffy miners checking in after striking it rich in the nearby diggings, and the notables who may have occupied that very same room in years gone by.