Sovereign Hill Historical Park Shufen Mountain (Sovereign Hill), located in the eastern suburb Ballarat the third largest city in Victoria, is a popular theme park tourist attraction transformed from an abandoned gold mine Melbourne about 115 kilometers from the capital of Victoria. Attract nearly 800000 tourists from all over the world every year.
Gold was discovered here in 1851, a gold rush around the world. In a short period of time, a large influx of gold miners from Europe, America and Asia made Ballarat and neighboring Melbourne rich quickly and made Melbourne once the busiest city of the British Empire. At the beginning of the 20th century, the gold panning here was exhausted, and the 50-year gold rush became history.
After the restoration of the gold-seeking ancient city in the 1970s, it was opened to the public as a tourist attraction. About 160 staff now work here in their clothes, reproducing the mid-19th century Australian gold rush, giving visitors a sense of trance. A gentleman in a hat plays a harmonica on a bench by the side of the road, British soldiers in traditional red uniforms patrol with muskets, and four carriages fly past a smoke. The site of the gold mine, built exactly like the mid-19th century gold rush, is one of Australia's most famous outdoor museums. You can go down to the mine to experience the working environment of the gold prospectors, learn how to make candles in the 19th century, or experience a primitive wooden bowling ball. The most attractive thing is to pick up tools to sift gold sand in the river. If you find gold grains, you can take them for yourself, but think about it and know that this possibility is very low.
Attractions:
- Across the road from Shufen Mountain is the Gold Rush Museum (Gold Museum), which shows a variety of valuable collections, such as gold, gold, gold ornaments and gold coins, which are worth visiting;
- Enter Shufen Mountain, will see the main street (Main Street) wearing colorful clothes and carriages shuttle among them, the bustling crowd of grocers, candle manufacturers, blacksmiths, jewelers and so on, let people seem to travel through time and space back to the past. These 19th-century staff members are not only happy to take pictures with you, but also will suddenly perform drama, such as street quarrels, police pursuers and so on, very interesting. There are also fixed-time guard show and other performances;
- The various shops on the street not only have a retro architectural appearance, but also have a good look in it. For example, in the printing shop, you can see the scene of printing newspapers in the year, in the bakery there are pastry cakes baked with wood-burning brick stoves, in the candle shop you can learn how to make candles in the 19th century, and in the bowling alley you can experience a primitive wooden bowling ball. In addition, iron, hand soap shops and so on are also very interesting, worth visiting for a while;
- Walking into the Red Hill Mine (13 meters underground), you can see a life-size moving "hologram" that reproduces the scene where the miner Richard Jeffrey accidentally discovered the largest gold nugget at the time. The gold mine called "Welcome Nugget" weighs 69 kilograms and is still the second largest gold nugget in the world;
- Tourists can also take part in gold mine sightseeing activities (Gold Mine Tours), go down to the mine to experience the working environment of the gold miners in those years, and learn the story of Chinese miners coming to this gold rush. Participation in this activity requires a separate ticket purchase and advance booking at the ticket office;
- In addition to the town's main street, the most popular place in Shufen Mountain is the gold rush River in the mining area, where many tourists gather and take tools to sift sand in the river. It takes some luck to get sand, and if there is no harvest, you can buy real gold souvenirs in souvenir shops.
In particular:
- Carriage and gold tour has additional costs, Hongshan mine tour free, please consult the official website for details: http://www.sovereignhill.com.au/multilingual/sovereign-hill-cs/opening-times-cs
- The right way to pan gold is: a little sand, a small basin of water, so sieve up, sand will float, sand is easy to reveal.
Ticket price:
- Adult: A $58.5
- Children (5-15 years):$26.2
- Family (size 2):$148
- Households (1 size 3 size):$106
Opening hours:
- Historic Park :10:00-17:00
- Gold Museum :9:30-17:30
