Sovereign Hill is an immersive, open-air museum in Ballarat that recreates a 19th century town during Victoria’s Gold Rush. It’s one of the best things to do in the Goldfields, and a popular attraction year-round, but especially in winter when the whole “town” lights up after dark for the annual Winter Wonderlights festival. David & I visited Sovereign Hill for the Winter Wonderlights on a day trip from Melbourne, in our first year living in Melbourne.

The Australian Gold Rush

In 1851, prospectors struck gold in NSW and Victoria, sparking Australia’s first gold rush. Australia’s Gold Rush played a fundamental role in shaping Australia’s history, multicultural population and our national relationship with democracy.

The Gold Rush made Melbourne the richest city in the world and changed Australia’s convict colonies into multicultural cities. Moving from a predominately prisoner population to one made up of free settlers was an important step in the development of Australian cities.

After the discovery of gold in 1851 at Poverty Point, hopeful diggers swarmed what is today’s Goldfields region. The town of Ballarat sprung up virtually overnight and within weeks, had a population of 10,000.

In just twenty years, from 1851-1871, Australia’s population tripled from 430,000 to 1.7 million. Immigrants came from the UK, Europe, the United States and China.

Sovereign Hill

Sovereign Hill is a historically-recreated village, based on Ballarat in the first decade of the Victorian Gold Rush. The open-air museum is one of Victoria’s most popular attractions. To celebrate Christmas in July, fake snow fluttered through Sovereign Hill during the day and after dark, the town lit up for the Winter Wonderlights show.

Sovereign Hill comes alive with the fully-costumed actors strolling the streets, staying in character as they interact with visitors and answer questions about the Gold Rush.

We didn’t make it to the gold melting demonstration and we decided we were a bit big to be making gingerbread, but we did watch a 19th-century police officer show off his weapons.

He brought out a club, a sword, a rifle and, to finish the show with a bang (literally), a musket. During the demonstration, he explained how Australia’s original police force was corrupt and how it eventually led to the Eureka Rebellion. To drum up extra cash, the government made a law that every person over the age of 12 – digger or not – must have a Gold Mining License on them at all times. If caught, the police officer made half the profit, which was around 2.5 pounds.

At the time, the annual salary for an officer was 22 pounds, so with a bit of creative enforcing, issuing fines was a lucrative business. Unfortunately, officers started tearing up digger’s licenses before their eyes and fining them anyway. Life in Australia was tough enough as it was, and the diggers went from being a bit pissed off to absolutely ropeable pretty quickly. Before they knew it, the officers had a full-blown rebellion on their hands.

We didn’t make it to any other demonstrations but had fun exploring the historical village. One section is full of diggers’ houses, some of which are open for some nosing around. I couldn’t believe how tiny they were!

Ballarat was freezing on Saturday, which got us wondering how people stayed warm during Victoria’s bitter winters in the 19^th century. We concluded that they must have drunk a lot, because our many layers weren’t doing all that much to keep out the cold! Diggers were also probably made of tougher stuff.

We ate at the “New York Bakery” in the afternoon, keen to get out of the cold for the last hour before the light show.

Winter Wonderlights at Sovereign Hill

I had decided to skip Melbourne’s White Nights light show that year, because even though I was excited to see the city splattered in beautiful light artworks, I wasn’t up for the huge crowds. As it turns out, I needn’t have worried because Winter Wonderlights is basically a cuter, smaller version of White Night. The main street’s 19^th century buildings are lit up in beautiful, crazy Christmas patterns, which change every few minutes.

Sovereign Hill wasn’t on my radar before this weekend and David & I were the only child-free couple in the place, but I’m really glad I went! Wandering through Sovereign Hill was way more fun than shuffling through a museum and the light show in the evening was a sweet way to finish the day.

Have you visited Victoria’s goldfields?

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