Sovereign Hill, Ballarat
Trip Start
Jan 19, 2007
1
30
36
Trip End
Feb 24, 2007
Ballarat, Australia
Sunday, February 18, 2007
Sovereign Hill is a living history museum, telling the story of Ballarat's goldrush history, one of the most historically significant events on the Ballarat goldfields occurred in 1854 when angry miners rebelled against licence fees and a corrupt, unjust government. The eureka uprising brought about changes that many hail as the birth of Australias nationhood.
This place is fantastic and huge, people living and working in traditional ways, in life, dress, work and play. Very hot today and very dusty, the horse and cart is going around the town watering the road.
We saw traditional sweets being made, had tours of the old mines, saw gold being smelted and George was allowed to hold the bar worth $85000 WOW. The town is wonderful, we panned for gold and George found the largest bit (its real, we asked, they put in approx 3 grams per day).
As a treat for George we booked up for the evening show at Sovereign Hill called blood on the southern cross, we had a meal in the towns hotel and were taken on a landtrain tour through a light, sound and fire show about the eureka uprising, it was superb, even though we were eaten alive by bugs and it poured down with rain for the first time in 15 months.
