YEAR 5

On the 13th of July the year 5s went to Sovereign Hill. We came to school early so we were all sleepy but excited to go. We got on the bus, it was a very long and boring ride, but we finally made it there.

 We walked around for a bit, taking in the sights. As we walked up and down the Main Street hill we noticed that there was a living timeline of the shops and buildings…they got older and older the further down the hill we went.

It was really exciting to try our hand at gold panning. It was very hard to pan for gold in the water because the gold was extremely small and hard to see. Only a few people had a ‘Eureka’ moment and found gold, but we all shared their excitement.

We went to a gold making factory where we were welcomed to country by our smelting guide. We saw how gold was refined during the gold rush, including how it is smelted to a temperature of over 1,000 degrees Celsius. A few of us were lucky enough to hold the $250,000 gold bar. What a shame they wouldn’t let us take it home!

Entering the ‘Red Hill Mine’ our knees trembled and our hearts raced. We got a taste of what it was really like down in the damp, dark mines back in the day. The mine had a presentation about the ‘Welcome Stranger Nugget’, a massive gold nugget that was discovered in Victoria and was eventually sent to London to be made into gold coins. If we’re being honest, it was quite scary down there, but really interesting to learn about not only the nugget but the struggles the miners faced day to day. We’re thankful we didn’t get trapped by the rubble like some.

The schools in the 1800’s were miserable because there were too many harsh consequences for reasons that were a bit weird. Teachers also thought writing with your left hand was a sign of the devil and punished children for doing so. We think our teachers might have like the sign that was on display in the classroom though, (especially when we were on the bus) “Children were seen but not heard, and those that were heard were never seen again.”

We loved visiting the living museum that is Sovereign Hill and are thankful of the modern comforts in our lives today.