Ballarat: Day Sixty-Nine (27 December)

Ballarat was the site of the Australian Gold Rush in the nineteenth century and, after a quick look round the town as it is today, we went to Sovereign Hill, an open air museum recreating what it would have been like to live in those days.

It was a bit like the Wild West then and soldiers were needed to make sure people didn't behave too badly. Australia was still a British colony so we saw Redcoats marching down the Main Street.

The Sovereign Hill school wasn't open because it is the Australian school summer holidays but during term time children from today can find out what it would have been like to be taught in the Victorian era. It was much more strict and they used the cane so I wasn't too sad to miss that.

Instead we went on the Red Hill Mine Tour and saw how wheels are made at the Wheelwrights. We also had a coach ride and tried our hand at gold panning but we didn't find any.

Here I am in my prospector's hat.

Barnaby