From Monday the 11th to Wednesday the 13th of August the Year 5/6 cohort attended camp at Sovereign Hill, Ballarat.

Following are accounts from our four Student Captains of their experiences.

Red Hill Mine Tour

A couple weeks ago, the year 5/6s went on camp to Sovereign Hill, Ballarat! One of my favourite things was the Red Hill Mine tour. The tour took us deep underground to learn how gold was found during the Gold Rush of the 1850s. It was a thrilling, awe-inspiring, and amazing experience! We were standing outside the entrance to the mine at the start of the tour and a guide was explaining it to us.He told us that the mine would be cold, dark, and a bit cramped in places. Then we made our way slowly down into the mine along a tunnel. The walls were stone and the ceiling was low, so we had to watch our heads. The deeper we went into the mine, the darker and colder it became. There were small lights along the walls to lead us through and sound effects so we would believe that we had actually gone back in time. We heard picks hitting rocks, water dripping and voices mumbling. We were led to believe that actual miners worked around us. At the mine, we saw a light and sound show on the Welcome Nugget, the largest gold nugget found anywhere in the whole world. It was found in that same mine in 1858 and weighed over 69 kilograms! The show used lights and projected characters to tell us about how the miners found the nugget and how surprised and thrilled they were. It made me feel incredible to think that something so enormous had been beneath the earth all that while. We also saw displays of miners' equipment and scenes of miners mining, carrying rocks, and panning for gold. The guide explained how hard and risky the work was. The miners laboured all day with very little food and did not always get gold. The mine was very unsafe because tunnels could fall in, or miners could be struck by rocks or dust.

While the real mine was dark and a little eerie, I was safe and I really enjoyed the experience of the history. The Red Hill Mine Tour gave me an understanding of how people endured the gold rush. It made me appreciate how lucky we are today to have working conditions that are improved and jobs that are safer. When we concluded the tour, we made our way back up to daylight. Being outdoors was pleasant, but I was sad to be leaving the mine because I had learned so much. The tour brought history to life, and I will never forget how exciting it was to walk where gold used to be.

By Sham

Sovereign Hill

We arrived at Sovereign Hill after a two-hour bus-ride from school. As soon as we stepped through the gates it felt like we entered a completely different time to reality. The whole place looked like an old gold rush town, with dusty roads, wooden buildings, horses pulling carts and people dressed in the 1850s clothes. It didn’t feel like a museum, it felt real.

Walking around was exciting because there was always something new to see. There were old shops, cottages, mines and even people who acted like they lived there. The air smelled like smoke from the chimneys, sounds of Blacksmith’s hammers echoed through the streets, it really made you feel like you were living in the past.

One of my favourite activities were gold panning in the creek. We each got a pan and tried to find tiny flakes of gold. It was kind of hard, but it was exciting when we found specks of shiny gold. It made the whole experience fun.

The camp itself was so much fun. Being there with my friends, exploring the town, and staying overnight made it even better. We laughed a lot, took heaps of photos, and made memories I’ll never forget.

By Anvita

Sovereign Hill

DAY 1

The TWO-HOUR bus ride was (surprise surprise) extremely boring and it was impossible to get any sleep because of the chatter (and because we were on a bus). Eventually, we reached Sovereign Hill.

Upon reaching we had to unpack the bus by picking up the first bag you see and coincidently the bag that’s at my feet when I step off the bus is… MINE! I couldn’t believe my insane luck. We then went to the buildings (which were our cabins) and put our bags in the ‘rec’ room. We then trudged over to the ‘oval’ (it was more like a HILL. Get it?) and had our morning snack/lunch and played for a bit. When everyone had finished their lunch, we split off into our activity groups. My activity group supervisor was Mrs Scully. We went down to main street and visited only a few buildings as we had to go candle dipping.

We went to the candle shop to watch and do the candle dipping. First, we watched this man named Angus colour a candle into rainbow colours. Since me and my friends didn’t have the combinations for every colour memorised, so we just made a rainbow too.

We then went down to main street and visited every shop there was left to visit. Almost everyone rushed into the lolly shop when we reached there. When it was nearing a time for an activity we went to the gold-panning stream where we met up with the other groups for the (artificial) ‘mine’ tour.

First, we had to descend a long flight of stairs which everyone was scared of, so me and Warren (my friend) led the way. Then we had to climb UP a ladder. We began walking but we had to start and stop every couple of metres because we were listening to the voices emanating from hidden speakers (they were giving us directions). When we reached the end, we went up another flight of stairs.

When we left, we roamed around Sovereign Hill once again. Just walking around. I don’t really remember what we did next so I will just say that we went to back to our cabins and got ready for dinner.

For dinner (5:30pm) we went to the New York Bakery. When we were walking down though, some kids were skidding on the gravel causing big dust clouds which the rest of us had to walk through. When we got there, we sat at the tables and all of us liked the table that we were on so much that we sat at the same table, same people for every time we were there. For dinner that day we had Spaghetti Bolognese (yummy) and cheesecake for dessert (also yummy). The dietary requirements were served first, and they were served everything at once (Main course, side course and dessert). The rest of us were served after. When we finished, we went back to our cabins for a bit before going to a ‘Pantomime’

When we went to the pantomime the sky was a very dark blue and it was hard to see stuff in the dark. The pantomime was at the Victoria theatre (which was next to the New York Bakery) The pantomime had lots of comedy and magic tricks. For one of the magic tricks mostly everybody was shouting that they knew how the trick works but then the magician (I don’t remember her name) did the trick again and added a little extra to it and it completely perplexed everybody. Then there was a Q&A (short) session with the actors. We went back to our cabins when it was over and brushed our teeth, took showers and then went to sleep.

By Mann

Sovereign Hill

On the 11th of August 2025, the Grade 5/6s excitedly gathered on the basketball courts, ready to have a lot of fun. At 9:30am the buses came, and we loaded our heavy luggage and left for Sovereign Hill. After a long drive, we arrived…

First, we had our lunches and then we did candle dipping, where we got to dip our candles into dye! We also did GOLD PANNING, and most people found gold slivers. It was my favourite thing to do, mostly because I had ‘gold fever’ After we had dinner, we watched a pantomime show. It was really funny.

The next day, we watched a gold bar getting smelted, poured, and then satisfyingly, sizzling in water to cool down. Next, we had a session about learning about the Chinese people on the goldfields. We walked through a model/representation of a Chinese village. It had a butcher, herbalist, and small tents for living. After, we saw a candy making demonstration. They had a pot of thick, flavored, liquid toffee and put it into a roller, which shaped it. Once it cooled you could eat it! I was lucky enough to buy a jar of these lollies for my family, who I missed. Finally, we had free time in our cabins, and we watched a movie, Paper Planes altogether.

NOOOOOO! PACKING!!!!!! I quickly packed, faster than everyone else, just so I could have a rest. ‘AHH!’ I sighed. ‘MORNING TEA!’ the teacher called, waiting for us. So, we ate morning tea and then had a learning session about Aboriginal people in Ballarat e.g., how they lived or had changed since the settlers arrived. Once we were done, we did a little more gold panning, I found more gold (I’m RICH!), then we got on the buses and left, ready to finally come back home. But knowing that we were going, I bought a candle last second, as a souvenir.

By Ethan

Artist of the Term