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Exhibits
If you are on camp for a few days you might be able to see all of Sovereign Hill. If you have limited time you will have to make some decisions about what you want to see. Students can interact with our costumed staff and volunteers. Our museum can be divided into a number of areas.
The Diggings
The Chinese Camp
Main Street and Trades, Crafts and Stores
Steam Operations
Speedwell Street
Activations
You might wish to view our Interactive Map (pdf) while reading these descriptions
The Diggings
This area shows the early diggings of 1851 to 1855. This was the heady days of the Rush. It involved living in tents and digging shafts looking for buried rivers called Deep Leads.
Don’t miss:
The huts on the diggings of the lucky, the unlucky, the married, the single and the harsh living conditions endured by all.
The rough but ingenious technology of the windlasses, windsails, whims and whips.
The Waterloo Store and its range of goods and supplies.
The Chinese Camp
Our Chinese Camp has had a huge make-over. Using new technology, we tell the story of the Chinese protest against the race-based taxes imposed on them.
Don't miss:
The beautiful Temple
Main Street and Trades, Crafts and Stores
Life became more permanent in Ballarat in the mid 1850s. People decided to stay and invested in buildings and businesses. Sovereign Hill boasts many working shops, stores and factories of the later 1850s.
Don’t Miss:
Bath’s Hotel Stables
Dilges’ Blacksmith Shop
Red Hill Photographic Rooms
Ballarat Times Printers
Charles Spencer, Confectioner
Brown’s Confectionery Manufactory
Clarke Brothers, Grocers
Post Office
Rees and Benjamin, Watch and Clockmakers
Robinson and Wayne’s, Apothecaries’ Hall
Glasgow SaddleryVictoria Theatre
Mechanics’ Institute & Free Library
Criterion Store (Drapery)
Charlie Napier Hotel
Soho Foundry
Clarke Brothers, Tinsmiths
Hewett’s Yarrowee Soap and Candle Works
Colonial Bank of Australasia
W. Dawson, Builders and Undertakers
Empire Bowling Saloon
William Proctor, Coach Builder and Wheelwrights
You may pre-order goods from the following stores
Gift Shop
Waterloo Store
Dilges’ Blacksmiths
Ballarat Times
Brown & Co. Confectionery Manufactory
Gold Smelting Works
William Hewett’s Yarrowee Soap & Candle Works
The Steam Operations
The area near the steam operations features a quartz mine from the 1890s. It is a big company mine where gold in quartz veins is being extracted.
Don’t miss:
The Poppet Head
The Boiler House and Engine Room
The Mine Blacksmith
The Battery House
For an extra fee you can go on a conducted mine tour of the quartz mine. School groups must pre-book this activity.
Speedwell Street
Speedwell Street is a residential area displaying domestic life from 1855. You can see the Red Hill National School and St Peters Denominational School. The houses on the higher side of the street show how the more affluent lived while those on the lower side are less salubrious.
Don’t miss:
Red Hill and St Peters schools
Davidson’s cottage and St Ives on the higher side
Chambers’ and Wain’s cottages on the lower side
The horseworks – a horse-drawn saw mill
Visiting our Friends of Sovereign Hill who inhabit the cottages and have a wonderful story to tell.
Activations, Demonstrations and Activities
(Times are subject to change)
| Gold Panning | All day in the creek | |
| Musket Firing | 11.30 am and 3.00pm near the Post Office | |
| Street Theatre |
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| Sweet making | Booking Essential | |
| Coach Rides | 10.30 am to 2.00 pm (Pre book for school rates) | |
| Redcoat Soldiers | 1.30 pm near Tinsmiths | |
| Steam Powered machinery | 10.30 am to 4.30 pm at the Quartz Mine | |
| Metal Spinning | 10.30 am to 4.30 pm at the Soho Foundry | |
| Bowling | 10.30 am to 4.30 pm at the Bowling Saloon | |
| Wheelwrighting | 1.00 pm and 3.30 pm at the Wheelwrights |