Easter 2012–Day 4
The Easter Bunny came to our camp site, so Brendan must have been good..
Brendan was up & off early with his friends, scootering around, he didn’t come back to the camper for ages so David & I gave up on him for breaky and had bacon & eggs with out him . Brendan was off on an Easter egg hunt – provided by the staff at the caravan park, he was happy, he came back with a bag full to share
We plotted the address of Sovereign Hill into the GPS & started off for the day. The grounds were large, scattered with replica homes & tents of the gold diggers and families,old steam machinery, displays such as tin making & blacksmith, there was a theatre which had live performance’s, a School – Brendan sat in the front row learning to write using a quill & ink. We tried ten pin bowling 1800’s style – using wooden pins & ball. A ride in the horse drawn coach around the area was a must, Brendan got to sit up top with the driver.A redcoat soldier display along the street, with guns being drawn was a treat and drew a large crowd. We tried our hand at fossicking for gold, Brendan & David found a few slivers but alas no big nuggets, it was fun.We had lunch at the local bakery – 3 serves of Devonshire tea’s please. The rest of the afternoon consisted of various activities including a visit to the local bar for a drink, looking at the Chinese section of the town, visiting the local confectionary shop – we were a bit late & they had sold out of all the toffee apples ( they looked really nice ) and a red hill gold mining tour underground – where we viewed a replica of the 2nd biggest nugget found, before we decided to have a rest & freshen up back at the campsite before returning for the nights activities.
We had booked a dinner & show for tonight, it started at 5.30. We arrived and had complimentary drinks before being taken in to the dinning area where we had roast lamb / chicken dinners followed by dessert – chocolate moose & apple strudel, it wasn’t too bad. The show followed it was broken into 4 sections. The first section was a short film in the theatre which describes the gold digging days leading up to when the Eureka Stockade took place. Next we walked outside to where we were fossicking earlier during the day ( it had an eerie feeling at night,) for a light show / commentary of days gone by with the escalating tensions between gold diggers and the government. We then boarded the vehicles which took us to the third section of the nights events, an area designed singularly for the show, we sat in a theatre style room, and once every one was settled the screen opened allowing us to view the show of the full sized eureka area comprising of camp sites/ mines, government tents, church and even a circus tent that was on the hills in front of us. There was a commentary of events that happened between Nov to Dec 1885 leading to the Eureka stockade, with the music and lights playing over sections of the area, you could visualise the people living there, we had burning hotels, murder, mayhem and even some gun fights,and of course the raising the Southern Cross flag etc . Lastly we were driven back to the main street where Peter Lalor, the leader of the Eureka Stockade miners, made a speech to us all about the need to fight for your rights. Overall this was a very good production and we all enjoyed it.
