Melbourne Day 3 - Eureka!!!!

This morning brought many grumbles and groans for the bright and early 6.30am start (that one was tough for the teachers too) in order to make the trip out to Ballarat. The 1.5 hour trip through the spectacular, green Victorian countryside passed surprisingly quickly, and before we knew it we had arrived at Sovereign Hill.

We started in the Gold Museum, learning about the history and significance of the discovery of gold in Australia. We then entered the olden time township of Sovereign Hill. Everything about this place, from the dusty streets, to heritage buildings and employees dressed up in 1800s clothing made us feel as though we were back in time to the gold rushes of Australia.

We began with a 'Secret Chamber' tour ... Our touring party was placed into a train inclined to around 45 degrees, which plunged us into pitch blackness while descending to around 25 metres underground. Here, our tour guide took us through the dimly lit mine shafts and explained how gold was mined. Halfway through our tour we entered a chamber and watched an animated story which was projected onto a rock wall, and was told from the perspective of two Chinese brothers in the 1850s. It was quite incredible.

Students then had free time to explore the township for lunch and other goodies, with most opting to sample the award winning pies and sausage rolls.

Next up was a gold pouring demonstration. It was fascinating to watch and learn about the process of separating gold from quartz. We could feel the 1000 degree heat radiating off the liquid gold, and were surprised at how quickly placing it into water cooled it into a solid ingot. Being so close to a $170k bar of gold was pretty amazing.

After departing the gold pouring shed we could hear marching and drums, and were lucky enough to watch some red coats march through the town, give a declaration to the townspeople (us) and fire off their incredibly loud guns! A super fun and interactive experience.

Making the most of our day, our next session was ominously titled 'Hunters of the Sky'. There were two native birds of prey for the show; "Jedda" the Nanking Kestrel and "Pickle" the Australian Hobby. Jedda happily flew from her trainer to members of the crowd, where she confused Mr Franich, Lachlan and Lily for tree stumps - they did remarkably well to play host to a tiny taloned terror of the sky. Pickle, one of the fastest birds of prey, played fetch with a lure on a rope showing her remarkable aerial agility.

Our very brave 'tree', Lily!

It was then time to get creative where we were first shown the craft of candle making and heard about candle making over the ages. We later had the chance for students to dip their own candles in coloured wax to take home as a souvenir.

Immediately following this we watched the traditional style of making hard candy - with a cooking demonstration of making raspberry drops which were delicious!

Off to another mine shaft - this time descending by foot and following the order of our lead miner as we made our way through the tight mine shafts, seeing another projected story of how the 'Welcome Nugget', a 69kg gold rock was found.

Finally, it was time to try our own hand at panning for gold - and Eureka! Darcy, Mitch and Alex all managed to find themselves a speck of gold!

Mitch's speck of gold

Back to Ray, our trusty bus driver, and the return trip to Melbourne. Despite the predicted 90% chance of rain, we were blessed with blue skies for nearly the entire day.

To end a lovely day, and given the unexpectedly clear night, we made the post-dinner walk through the bustling Saturday night CBD for a highly demanded supper treat - Starbucks hot chocolate!