We arrived at Ballarat around 2pm on the Monday. Our camp for the next two days was the Eureka Stockade Caravan Park. The park was comfortable, but a little small. The kids enjoyed the games room with the games tables and boardgames We set up and spent the first day getting organised.
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| Challenging Cameron to a game of air hockey |
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| Breakfast! |
The next morning we headed out to Sovereign Hill, an Open Air Museum, based on the Ballarat Gold Rush of the 1850s.
It was opened in 1970 and I recalled going there when I was about Cameron's age (around 1992). Ballarat is famous for the discovery of large amounts of gold in 1851. The gold was in alluvial gold fields - underground riverbeds where the gold could be easily (but not without a large amount of damage) extracted.
Gold was discovered by Thomas Hiscock on 2 Aug 1851 and when gold was found again by John Dunlop and James Regan on the 19th of August, the gold rush started. Many miners rushed to Ballarat from China, Ireland and England, hoping to strike it rich.
The welcome nugget, a 69kg gold nugget was found by Cornish miners at Ballarat. It is the second largest gold nugget ever found.
Ballarat was also the home of Australia's only armed rebellion - known as the Eureka Stockade. In 1854, the miners fought the colonial Australian forces over laws enforcing 'Gold Licenses' and taxation. While the police and military forces easily overcame the miners, the whole thing was a PR disaster for the colonial forces.
Soveriegn Hill consists of a series of themed shops and buildings, based on the 1850's era. There are mine tours, gold panning (the owners sprinkle gold flakes into the stream's source to ensure that it is possible to find some, if you're lucky), and themed shows around the 1850s and the mining.
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| Costumed staff and the Colonial Bank |
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| Trooper and some ladies |
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| Main Street |
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| The Apothecary |
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| and the attached surgeons rooms |
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| Posters on the buildings |
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| Horse and cart |
After booking ourselves in for one of the mine tours - Labyrinth of Gold ($20 for the family), we went to check out the water pump. Since the gold in Ballarat was found in underground streambeds (alluvial), water was a huge problem and needed to be pumped from the mines. Steam engines were used to drive the pump arms and clear the water from the shafts.
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| Water pump tower |
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| Surge of water incoming |
The view from the tower was pretty cool - of both Sovereign Hill and Ballarat itself:
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| 360 Panoramic from the top of the tower platform |
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| Ballarat |
We checked out a few of the buildings nearby until our tour was ready:
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| Blacksmith |
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| The steam engines for the water pump |
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| One of the enormous furnaces used to power the steam pumps |
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| Furnaces |
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| Ferrous Foundry |
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| Metal Turner |
The Labyrinth of Gold tour took us down into the mines about 20m below Sovereign Hill, where we learned about the different types of mining and the conditions that miners faced. Ballarat had two types of miners - company or independent. Company miners were paid a good wage (double the normal at that time) and had the latest tools and equipment, but any gold they found needed to surrendered to the company. This way they were guaranteed a good income even if they found nothing (until the mine was shut down), but they could never strike it rich. The workplace safety was terrible though, with extreme noise, risk of collapse, gas, flooding etc and many miners dying young from 'miner's complaint' - inhaling of the quartz dust into the lungs (
Silicosis).
Independent miners made do with minimal costs and worked in small groups, however they directly benefited from the gold they found. Of course, they made do with picks and shovels.
The gold in Ballarat was found in quartz seams that ran at 45 degree angles:
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| Replica Gold Seam |
Next we stopped by to watch the 'Gold Pour', where an industrial blacksmith melted gold in a crucible, explained how it was purified and smelted an ingot:
Next, Tomas filled out a letter for his Swedish best friend, Leo, and we posted it so it would be marked with a Sovereign Hill postmark:
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| Writing the letter |
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| Posting the letter |
Next stop was lunch. We headed to the big playground and made ham and cheese sandwiches, while the kids had a play:
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| HMS Catherine |
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| Cam on a horse |
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| Alana on the horse |
We also booked in to get an old fashioned photo taken, so we had about an hour to burn before our time.
We visited a few other buildings along the outskirts:
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| School building |
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| Cartwrights - belts |
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| Leatherworker |
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| Leathergoods |
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| Sovereign Hill |
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| The top of the independent miner's shaft |
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| Candlemakers |
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| Marching Redcoats |
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| Bowling |
High action at the bowling alley:
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| Chinese miners camp |
We spent a few minutes panning for gold before we needed to get the photo taken:
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| Showing Cameron how to pan |
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| Tom panning |
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| Alana panning |
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| Kris and Tom |
While we were panning, we saw a miner get arrested by troopers for not having a license. When his wife presented a license, the troopers ripped it up and took him away:
Kris found the first piece of gold, but we didn't have anywhere to put it, so she tucked it into her lens cleaning bottle, but we never found it again. In the end I found a few pieces and we bought a bottle to hold them in, so we did come away with something.. not rich, but we had fun.
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| Our gold |
It was time for our photo, so we headed over the photography rooms, where we dressed up and had our picture taken:
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| Photography |
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| Our photo |
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| The colour version |
We had bribed the kids with lollies if they behaved for the photo, so our next stop was the old fashioned sweet shop. I'd had a memory of an old style boiled sweet called "Butterballs" that I was sure I had got from Moonta when I was about 10 years old. When we went to the Old Sweet Shoppe in Moonta I was disappointed that they didn't have it. Turns out it was from Sovereign Hill and they still made them! I got a jar of those, Alana and Tom got a gift bag with raspberry balls and rainbow shells, Cameron got musk balls and Kris got Aniseed Balls and Salted Caramel Balls.
We then spent a bit more time panning for gold and did a quick walking tour of a second mine, before heading out the Gold Museum.
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| Replica of the Welcome Nugget - 2nd largest nugget in the world, found in Ballarat (55m undergound, 2217 ounces.) |
All in all the kids loved sovereign hill and while it was a little expensive we had fun.
The next day we packed up and headed to Sunbury to visit Kristine's friend Nadia and then started down the Great Ocean Road to Lorne.
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