28 January 2012 - Shady Acres Caravan Park, Ballarat, Victoria

Here it is almost 8 pm and the sun is still shining and warm at about 28 degrees. Very nice! We have had an excellent day taking in one of Ballarat’s main attractions, Sovereign Hill.

Scenes at Sovereign Hill

This purpose built gold town has been re-constructed on the site of gold mining during the rush times of the 1850’s, details copied from drawings and paintings of the day, and today given life by the many staff and volunteers who move about the place either as guides or decoration to add authenticity. The tourist park covers twenty five hectares and we were warned to put aside five hours to take it all in.

We were there soon after opening time at 10 am and seemed to be on the go all day, exiting briefly for lunch, and managing to squeeze in a rushed visit to the Gold Museum on the hill across the road, all included in the ticket price, finally calling it a day soon after 4 pm. And speaking of ticket price, it is quite expensive (for us even with one discounted Senior entry, over $70, and Family tickets over $100) however it is absolutely worth it! Obviously everyone else thought the same, because it was packed with Australian and foreign tourists alike.

The diggings were busy with people panning for gold with their equipment (cost of gold added dirt additional to ticket price) and the Chinese tent town was just marvellous with much audio and film input, adding authenticity and keeping us for some time. It was here that Chris’s services were required to assist one of the staff shepherd a stray chook into its house, a spectacle I failed to document on film. We joined a tour that took us down into the Red Hill Mine where again we were caught up in the realism of the confinement, a water leak bursting through and the excitement of a huge gold nugget, The Welcome, found while we shared the fetid atmosphere and frustration of digging for elusive gold. Actually this particular experience was quite frightening, particularly for me who does not like dark enclosed spaces, especially when I believe I am about to be drowned as well!

We watched the smelter of $161,000 worth of gold from a crucible into an ingot and the making of musk flavoured toffee, both using methods that were in place 150 years ago. There were horse drawn cart rides, buskers, bakeries and pubs selling authentic food and drink, a draper selling all that drapers used to sell, saddlers and ironmongers making and selling their wares. We sat at a school desk and wrote lines with an old nib pen and ink, and were marked by the teacher; Chris with Good and mine, Very Good. We wandered through houses of the time, one occupied by an elderly couple dressed in their Sunday best, she knitting and him keen to discuss building techniques of the time. We watched soldiers march up the street, boasting their prowess and firing their guns to impress. It really was all quite wonderful; the above does not do it all justice.

I am however absolutely exhausted and so will put this aside to recuperate for the next instalment of Ballarat’s beautiful attractions. We have booked a further two days and may even extend further.