Imagine standing with dirt buckets, shovles and digging the sandy beds of the creeks amid the loud cries of ‘We found gold!’. This is the gold rush of Australia’s Sovereign Hill. You swirl the watery sand in the pan, discard the top layers of stones, swirl again, discard again and repeat the process. Finally, the gold digging pays off. You squint your eyes, trying to spot those tiny specks stuck at the bottom of the pan. If you are lucky enough, you get to extract the gold specks and take them home as souvenirs.
The old gold rush town has more than the glittering gold. With its historically recreated buildings, a marketplace that harks back to the 1850s, horse-drawn carriages going clip-clopping on the streets and costumed staff walking around in vintage clothing—Sovereign Hill is indeed a living museum. “Sovereign Hill is about keeping that history alive,” says Belinda Paine, a Customer Service Officer explaining how the place has been designed to look the way Ballarat must have in the 1850s to just after 1900.
The discovery of the precious metal in New South Wales and spreading to other regions of Victoria, including Ballarat, led to an economic boom, altering the socio-political fabric of life in the town. It was followed by an unprecedented influx of people from all over the world, driven by the promise of riches. Soon the new townships sprang up and infrastructure saw an upgrade.
Even a full day feels insufficient to see the multitude of activities. Take a tour of the underground mines to see what gold mines must have looked like back then. Witness demonstrations to see gold being heated up and poured into bars, watch candy makers use old techniques to make sweet candies or reenactments of staged fights and military practice. One can even learn rare trades through workshops such as basket weaving, metal etching, basic armouring, lacemaking, locksmithing, sewing and more.
If all that puts one in the mood for some indulgence, hop into Hope Bakery for delicious sausage rolls or the United States Hotel for light refreshments and beer on tap. Period posters adorning the walls provide a glimpse into the pivotal era—advertisements for the Royal Theatre staging the popular Charles the Second, a grand cricket match between Ballarat and Creswick’s Creek, some ‘really first-class lot of horses’ and Eagle Dining Rooms offering breakfast, lunch, supper and soups.
On the main street, it is not an uncommon sight to see a trooper walk by, rounding up gold diggers without their gold licenses—all costumed staff putting up a good show, of course!