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Published: October 9th 2015
Sovereign Hill, Ballarat
Get rich quick scheme! 3 gold pans at the same time Despite the disappointing time at the Swan Hill Pioneer Settlement, we had planned to spend an entire day at Sovereign Hill, the replica gold town in Ballarat. In fact, we had also booked to do the sound and light show (called Blood on the Southern Cross) at Sovereign Hill, which is almost entirely focussed on the Eureka Uprising of 1854.
We were up bright and early this Friday (pre-Grand Final Day in Victoria) but the traffic was very light and there didn't seem to be anything happening. We stopped for some fuel and I asked the attendant was it particularly quiet for a Friday? She replied that the Victoria Government had declared that a Public Holiday should be celebrated on Grand Final Eve. Not hard to believe when Victoria is the only place in the world where a public holiday is required for a horse race!
We zigged and zagged through the peak hour traffic and got to the Ballarat CBD early so we stopped to get a coffee. Of course, just about every coffee shop was closed so it took quite a lot of time to actually find a coffee shop that was open. He was doing a
Sovereign Hill, Ballarat
Booking early for the Gold Mine Tour roaring trade too.
Our first stop was the Gold Museum (which is directly opposite the entrance to Sovereign Hill). It opens half an hour earlier than Sovereign Hill. The museum had expanded and it now holds a bigger range of collections (not specifically goldfields related) but most of the key exhibits, (maps, gold nuggets, paintings etc) are still a worthwhile visit. Once we had completed our walk through it was across the road to Sovereign Hill settlement. There was a big queue for tickets but we already had ours so we walked straight past and in to the gold town of Red Hill.
Knowing how popular the mine tours are, we firstly walked up the main street to make a booking for one of the mine tours. Many years ago, a retired miner would take a group underground and explain all about how mining was conducted. These days it's a bit different. There are three tours and a small part of the tour is to walk through an underground mine (some of it is real). The majority of the time on tour now centres on a movie that is projected on a makeshift screen within the underground workings.
Sovereign Hill, Ballarat
Looking down the main street We chose the tour / story of the Chinese brothers who came to Australia to seek their fortune.
One of the best things about Sovereign Hill is that there are local people who are happy to talk to you about their lives as they go about their day acting out their role on the goldfields. This makes it much more realistic and interesting.
We climbed the poppet head and took photos of the town and the parade of the Redcoats (soldiers). Everyone gathered to see the parade.
After lunch at the New York Bakery (being waited on by people in period costume) we toured the shops and then wandered down to the creek to see if anyone was panning for gold. There were lots of people so we joined in and Lenny explained to those interested the best methods to maximise your chances of "finding some colour". Ask Georgi to show you the bottle of gold that we panned from the creek.
Late in the afternoon after much tramping up and down the streets, we called it a day and went out to the carpark to move the bus the short distance to the caravan park
Sovereign Hill, Ballarat
Another view of the main street we were staying at that night. That went off without a hitch (we had already booked this particular park for the night) and we had a short rest before heading back (on foot) to Sovereign Hill to see the performance "Blood on the Southern Cross".
There are no actors (other than a brief cameo by Peter Lalor at the end of the show) but the performance provides stunning sound and light effects and there are a variety of voices narrating the times when the diggers took up arms against the Government forces to protest against the gold mining tax. The show was a sellout - Georgi got the last chair in the theatre and Lenny had to stand for the first 15 minutes. The majority of the show is held outside and in an open air recreation of a hotel where you look out on to the diggings (all lit up) and hear the protests of the miners, their families and the Government troops. We had planned this trip to ensure that our visit coincided with a warmer patch of weather (Ballarat can be very cold even in summer) and it all went well.
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