Our four grade 5 students are attending the Sovereign Hill historic theme park in Ballarat for two days. (Today and tomorrow) Sovereign Hill is set in the 1850s when there was a major gold rush near what is now Ballarat. At one time 40% of the world's gold came out of Ballarat including the famous 'Welcome Nugget'. The Ballarat gold rush followed the Californian gold rush and as with the gold rush of 1849, people from all over the world came to Ballarat to seek their fortune. Most didn't of course, but the wealth that came out of Ballarat made Victoria one of the richest colonies in the British Empire. At Sovereign Hill the children dress up as children on the gold fields in the 1850s. (Ours are pretending to be Irish immigrants fleeing the potato famine) and attend a re-creation of an 1850s school complete with school master or Ma'am and they will be learning about life on the gold fields as a child. (they will be learning copperplate writing, cross stitch, their 16 times tables as well as seeing a gold pour, panning for gold and other authentic early Victorian activities. Tomorrow they are expected to take their fees to school and learn a poem to recite to the visiting Father (They are in a re-creation of St Alipius School) Kids from Glen Park are with other children from our Network schools (Magpie, Balliang East, Lal Lal and Bungaree)
I attended the first day (I was also in costume and pretended to be a grazier looking for fit, sturdy and intelligent boys for my farm) I took a few photos below.
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