The weather has been changeable. Mornings are cool, but very sunny. By noon it starts to get cloudy, and the sun is gone all afternoon. It did rain one night, but not during the day.
We drove, about an hour, to Ballarat. This area is famous for being the center of the Australian gold rush, that started in the 1850's. It lasted longer than the California gold rush, and produced a lot more gold. People are still finding good sized gold nuggets.
During this time the Tapai Revolution was taking place in China, and a lot of Chinese tried to find their fortune in Australia. This led to a lot of racial tensions, and mistreatment of the Chinese. The number of Chinese immigrants led to the "White Australia" policy of the first Australian Constitution in 1901.
Sovereign Hill is a tourist attraction that recreates a mining town from that period. It's like one of our pioneer villages.
One of the neat thing is that school groups stay here for a two day "pioneer experience". They wear period costumes, experience what school would be like in those days, and get a chance to pan for gold.
Sovereign Hill does show the Chinese experience, and explains it well.
There is a mine that you go down, with holograms of live size miners, and the proper sound effects.
It doesn't just cover the early days of the gold rush, but also the later years, by which time shafts were down much lower, and steam engines were an important part of the mining industry. I really enjoyed this part. No electric motors, everything is powered by steam, and there are huge pulley systems to work the machines. It was impressive.
There are also demonstrations, but each one is on only once or twice a day, so it's difficult to see them all.
I must admit that one of my problems is that we went to Colonial Williamsburg in July, and the way Americans represent the history of their period is, by far, the best I have ever experienced.
Sovereign Hill was interesting, and I'm happy we saw it.
There is also a Gold Museum, but, after 4 hours of walking around the pioneer site, it was a bit dry.
All in all it was a good day, and the GPS worked perfectly. He actually sounded less stressed, now that he had his maps back.
Have fun
Ralf
We drove, about an hour, to Ballarat. This area is famous for being the center of the Australian gold rush, that started in the 1850's. It lasted longer than the California gold rush, and produced a lot more gold. People are still finding good sized gold nuggets.
During this time the Tapai Revolution was taking place in China, and a lot of Chinese tried to find their fortune in Australia. This led to a lot of racial tensions, and mistreatment of the Chinese. The number of Chinese immigrants led to the "White Australia" policy of the first Australian Constitution in 1901.
Sovereign Hill is a tourist attraction that recreates a mining town from that period. It's like one of our pioneer villages.
One of the neat thing is that school groups stay here for a two day "pioneer experience". They wear period costumes, experience what school would be like in those days, and get a chance to pan for gold.
Sovereign Hill does show the Chinese experience, and explains it well.
There is a mine that you go down, with holograms of live size miners, and the proper sound effects.
It doesn't just cover the early days of the gold rush, but also the later years, by which time shafts were down much lower, and steam engines were an important part of the mining industry. I really enjoyed this part. No electric motors, everything is powered by steam, and there are huge pulley systems to work the machines. It was impressive.
There are also demonstrations, but each one is on only once or twice a day, so it's difficult to see them all.
I must admit that one of my problems is that we went to Colonial Williamsburg in July, and the way Americans represent the history of their period is, by far, the best I have ever experienced.
Sovereign Hill was interesting, and I'm happy we saw it.
There is also a Gold Museum, but, after 4 hours of walking around the pioneer site, it was a bit dry.
All in all it was a good day, and the GPS worked perfectly. He actually sounded less stressed, now that he had his maps back.
Have fun
Ralf
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