With this new blog my focus can be here a little more and while I sort out some things. I thought this weekend I might just do a Weekend Wandering post and then do a catching up post tomorrow. Or I may just put them both back together, who knows, will see how this goes.
Sovereign Hill
The other day a friend and I took a trip to Sovereign Hill in Ballarat. It is like a museum of the gold rush days there. So it is set in that era, so latter half of the 19th century. They have a lot of shops and businesses that you would have seen in gold mining communities, plus the type of homes that people lived in. It is quite interesting.
Mostly wooden buildings and dirt roads. They seem to wet the roads down so there isn’t too much dust. It was really warm the day we went. Melbourne and Victoria are having unseasonably warm weather. It should be getting cold, but we are still wearing our summer clothes.
Lots of interiors to see and nothing seems to be off limits as far as taking photos is concerned. The above image is the doctors surgery, so glad for modern medicine. The sight of the saw in the foreground is a bit scary.
The interiors of the workshops were amazing, and just how you would imagine them to look. They remind me of many farm sheds, especially ones that have been around for a long time. They smell the same too.
In most of them they had people working as well. It was interesting to see them working and what they were doing.
Everywhere you looked there were people in the clothes of the period. You did feel like you had stepped back in time. We even toyed with the idea of finding out if we could dress up too. Though on such a hot day I don’t think I would have liked it. Though everyone dressed up does give the place a sense of authenticity.
There were school groups there and some of them got to dress up in clothes that school children would have worn back then. It helps fill the place with people in costumes. I loved the way the girls were taught to walk with their hands crossed in front of them.
It isn’t a cheap place to visit, the entry is $54 an adult, but you do get a full days worth out of it and if you are staying in Ballarat you can go the following day on the same ticket. We became members so we can go more often. We always come home with goodies from the lolly shop and the bakery.
I took over 700 photos, had to delete about 100, but still lots of photos. I would like to show more photos, so might include some in my catching up post. Here is a gallery with the above and some other photos. I hope your weekend is going well.
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I remember going to a place like this for a school trip. I thought it was so interesting how things were done back then. Such a simple time. The atmosphere was so welcoming. Great post, brought back great memories.
That is great to hear, it was simple times, though with the lack of medical knowledge not sure I would want to live there, but very nice to visit. Thank you.
Fascinating place Leanne! Wonderful pictures!
It is Adrian, and a good example, I just wish it wasn’t on a hill, makes it a long day lol. thank you.
Hey Leanne .. years since I have been to Sovereign Hill. What a great collection of photos 🙂
It had been years for me too Julie, it has changed a lot and got a lot bigger. Thank you.
A very impressive photo documentary!
Thank you Peter.
Hi Leanne, What a gorgeous place! It reminds me of some of our historic western towns. 🙂 I like your new website. You are doing a fabulous job. I’m trying to do the same thing, and struggling. Carol said you have an article about how you brought your readers along with you to this site. I’d like to do that so I don’t have to keep up so many sites!
Hello, it is a gorgeous place, yes, I think there are many similarities to your western towns and ours. That’s good to hear, I’m really happy with it too. Thank you so much, I’m trying. Yes, I have jetpack on this site and they moved everyone for me, so it was easy for me. Do you have them on yours?
Yes I do. So I will contact them today. That’s awesome. It’s good to have everything on one site. You are a mega success! I’m so proud of you! You work really hard and are such a dedicated professional, and you deserve your success and more. I would still love to do an interview with you for my new site. You are an expert on those, too!
I agree, and it seems lots of other people think the same. Oh, I don’t think so, not really, I wish it were true, but I still couldn’t support myself on what I make, so definitely not a financial success, hopefully that will change. I sent you my answers, I hope they are okay, let me know if you need anything else.
Thank you so much. You can pick and choose. You don’t have to answer all of them if u don’t want to. As much as you can do. Then if u want to display some of your photos, that would be awesome. We can link them to your page so people can buy them if they want to.
I’ve done them all, so you should have them now. Let me know if you didn’t get them.
Yeah! I got them all. Wonderful! Thank you soooooo much!
You are very welcome.
Your answers look great. I will post this on Thursday.
That’s good to hear Marsha.
what fun stepping back into time!
It was, I love going there.
Really interesting, Lovley set of photographs
That’s great to hear, RJ, thank you.
What a neat place!
It is Linda.
Really cool; it looks much like our “Old West”. Thanks!
From about the same time I believe. Thanks Claire.
I haven’t been there for so long! Zoe was about 3, and she’s now 29. The price is off-putting, but I’d love to go again – it’s really interesting and photogenic, as you know. 😊
I was the same, the last time I was there my youngest was a baby, and now she’s almost 21. It has changed a lot and so much bigger than it was, so much to see. I get what you mean, we felt the same about the price. However, we decided to become members and go a few times, in one year. I think so too, thanks Sukie.
I always going to living history museums like this. We’ve been to Sovereign Hill many times over the years. My nephews and nieces, who all grew up in Ballarat, went to the school there for a living history day at one time or another and got to dress up for the day.
I think Sovereign Hill is a good and it has got so big. So they would have been like the kids I photographed, how cool, that would have been amazing as a kid. Thanks Carol.
Thanks for sharing. I love going to those kind of places.
You’re welcome Lee, I do too, especially when they are as good as this one. Thanks