The Gold Fields BY MARIAH

We left Warrnambool and made our way down to Ballarat. Ballarat was the centre (center) of the Australian Gold Rush in the 1850s. My mum (mom) bought tickets that included all the gold attractions. They were the gold museum, The Blood On The Southern Cross light show, and the Sovereign Hill 60 acre re-creation of a mining town in that time period. The museum was full of interesting facts about gold. It had replicas of gold, the biggest nugget ever found and all that jazz. After the museum, in the evening, we went to The Blood On The Southern Cross light show. The show told the story of how miners got in fights with the British soldiers because they didn't want to pay their gold mining taxes. They got taxed whether they found any gold or not. The show was a 1 1/2 hour outdoor play without any actresses or actors. The special effects were great.

The next morning we went to Sovereign Hill. We went under ground on a hunted gold mine tour, we saw them pour liquid gold into a gold bar that costs $80, 000, but was only a 9 x 5 x 4 inch block. We saw a wagon wheel be built, lollies (candy) of that time be made, we watched them spin metal, watched the stage coaches go by, we saw musket firing and much more. There were many people dressed up in clothes that people in that era would wear. Sovereign Hill was voted the #1 Australian attraction, by Australians.

The pictures are of us panning for gold in the creek, us in the town, the town from a birds eye view, my dad in the haunted chamber, a stage coach, and the red coats musket firing.