Our special school holiday adventure this year was to Sovereign Hill in Central Victoria - a 9 hour drive from Canberra. Sovereign Hill is a gold-mining town, representing the original historic town of Ballarat in the 1850s.
Main Street is a reproduction of the original street
Characters in costume add to the ambience of the 1850s
Boiled lollies
We saw how toffee apples and aniseed drops were made
A policeman showed how a musket worked and how loud it sounded when fired (deafening!)
Meeting the locals
Musicians
Traditional toys and games
Koby found a weighing machine
Archer preferred to be inside. Unfortunately the bar was not open.
Horse and cart rides were very popular
Activities in Main Street
One of the five schools in the town
Dakota mastering pen and ink
The sand box for younger students
Family home of one of the shop owners
His family with damper (bread) on the fire
Their garden
And livestock
Candle making - 180,000 candles (with tallow = lamb fat) were produced daily in the height of the mining boom. Now they mass produce them with paraffin.
Dyeing candles
The wheelwright
A mineshaft
Panning at the busy diggings. A very engaging activity and we were rewarded with real flecks of gold. In the 1850s and 1860s this was the most productive gold field in the world. The search still continues today.
The largest piece found in the area was the Welcome Nugget, weighing 67kgs
Quartz rocks, brought up from the underground mine, were crushed, washed and the residual (gold, silver and copper) powder was sent to the foundry to be separated and processed.
A professional metallurgist, employed by a mining company, to pour or smelt gold nuggets into gold bars. Today a 3kg gold bar, which he produced in the demonstration, is worth $180,000.
Chinese camp. There was a Chinese girl telling their story and showed us how to use an abacus in the shop.
A large children’s playground near the entrance.
We had a fascinating time. Dakota (7) and Koby (5) were totally engaged in the activities. A really enjoyable day for us all.
M&M
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