Bookable
An Apollonaut travel guide
The place behind the detail.
A gold rush, a recreated town and the collections behind it offer several ways into the story of Sovereign Hill.
On this page
The decade of gold
Gold was found at Ballarat in 1851. Sovereign Hill recreates the decade that followed, in a town of more than 60 buildings on about 25 hectares of Golden Point.
Costumed workers and volunteers bring its streets, shops and diggings to life.
People and place
The Wadawurrung Cultural Precinct honours the Traditional Owners of the land, and an exhibit in the Sovereign Quartz Mine recalls the 1882 New Australasian mine disaster at Creswick.
The Australian Centre for Gold Rush Collections cares for more than 150,000 objects from the gold-rush era.
A museum since 1970
Sovereign Hill opened to the public on 29 November 1970, and its mine tram began carrying visitors underground in 2008.
This history belongs to the place and the people who shaped it. The History page offers a longer introduction, and the timeline gives a short route through selected milestones.
Read at the source
Sources & further reading
Links lead to the original publishers.
