Ballarat was a gold town. Gold was in them there hills. And in the rivers and creeks which run though it. And people came from all over Australia in the 1850s to try their luck at getting rich, for this was the richest stream of alluvial gold in the world and where the “Welcome Nugget' was discovered – the second largest gold nugget ever found – 69kgs of 99% pure gold. The township or huts and shacks around the river, and the school house and shops that supported them, have been rebuilt to give modern visitors an idea of what life was like on the gold rush frontier.

'Sovereign Hill', as it's been re-named is populated with suitably attired volunteers who help create a three dimensional picture to what is somewhere between an outdoor museum and a permanent re-enactment. Antiques, appropriate machinery, art, livestock, books and horses and carriages are all arranged to create the right effect.

The best bits for visitors have to be the mines which you can go down in, and having a crack at panning for gold

White Australia isn't that old so there's not all that much history to laud, so people the school system tends to make quite a big deal about what there was.

Written by  World Reviewer Staff.

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