Ballarat Excursion

On the 12th of November 2025, 4/5/6 travelled to Ballarat for 2 nights and 3 days. We arrived at school at half past six and left at 6:45. On the bus ride it was very loud with laughter, chatting and excitement in the air. We played games, read books and watched a movie after we went to Bendigo.

In Bendigo, we did some gold panning and some of us even found gems. And then we went 61 meters underground for a mine tour. We got back on the bus, NEXT STOP BALLARAT.

Sovereign Hill was amazing. As soon as we got there, we checked in at the accommodation and walked there. After that, we had dinner, dessert and played on the playground. Then we went to bed. The next morning, I was woken up by the sound of Rose’s alarm clock. After we got ready, we went to breakfast and were instructed what we were going to do that day, free time, a mine tour, gold smelting show, AURA and heaps more, but if I go on listing all of it, it would take me all day!!

Ballarat was amazing I recommend going there!

By Kaitlyn and Lois 😃

Ballarat

On the Ballarat Excursion it took 7 HOURS to get to Sovereign Hill. On the way, we stopped at Bendigo Mines and went 61.2 METRES underground and saw veins of gold.

Roch and Max's favourite activity was the Gold Rush game and the Gold Pour.

The gold rush game was when Ash and I were bankers and we were trying to see how it would be in the Gold Rush. The Gold Pour was about purifying (cleaning) gold, first the man would heat it to 1200 degrees Celsius in a cup and all the silver and bronze stick to the top and he would pour it into an ingot-shaped bowl. The gold looked like hot lava!

The funny moment was when Ash, Max and Roch were going up to do some bowling and it was all dusty, the wind blew and we got attacked by lots of sand on our legs and in the end it was pretty funny when Ash showed his red dotted legs.

In our cabins at night we were all telling funny stories.

By Roch and Max

Sovereign Hill

Last Wednesday, 4/5/6 went to Sovereign Hill and learned about the gold rush and how hard it was but the All Saints students aren't alone, soon the St Josephs and St Patrick students will join them on this journey.

On day one the drive starts at All Saints' picks up St Joseph's and changes buses while picking up St Patrick's. We then drove for a while and stopped at a mine in Bendigo, we went 61 meters underground. Then finished the drive to Sovereign Hill and checked in, had dinner, unpacked the bags and had a play on the playground before bed.

On day two we explored the town, did a mini game, went into a small mine and learned how gold bars were made. We also experienced a red coats marching parade with guns and shooting in the sky. Shopping at Sovereign Hill was fun, I brought two souvenirs, my favourite shop was the candy shop. Between meal breaks we played on a playground and finished the day with dinner at the cafeteria, we then jumped on a bus and went to a 3D show after that a light show and then a holographic play and then we took the bus to our rooms and we went to bed with more people doing a ding dong ditch, which is knock and run.

On day three, we had breakfast, packed our bags and loaded them into the bus,and went to the Eureka museum. We saw the real Eureka flag, it was bigger than a 90 inch's TV. We had morning tea before driving another few hours before having lunch and heading home. We dropped off St Joseph's, swapping buses and dropping off St Patricks and arriving at home with some things from the shops, and enjoying what we learned.

By Anna-Rose. G.

Ballarat: Sovereign Hill and more

Day 1:

On 12 of November 2025, I hopped out of the car so excited that I was jumping up and down and my luggage was almost everywhere. Then we said goodbye to our parents and got on the bus. A bit later on we arrived in Holbrook and picked up St Pats and got back on the road. Then we got to Albury and had some fruit, went to the toilet and then got on the second bus with St Josephs and on the road again we were. Soon after we arrived in Violet town to have a quick snack break. Not long after we arrived in Bendigo we hopped off the bus and explored, went gold panning, went to the gift shop and then we went down a mine 61 metres underground to level 2 and explored with our friendly tour guide for about 30 minutes. We then had afternoon tea and went to Ballarat. When we arrived we just chilled for the rest of the day in our rooms.

Day 2:

We hopped up, got ready to rock and roll and went shopping. Then we went to see a man make real gold. It was 3 kgs. Then we went back for lunch and then went down to a very interesting mine. It was very cool. Then we went back and got ready for the light show. We went to the botanical garden for the prime minister's walk. There were 28 prime ministers! Then we got back on the bus and headed to the light show. The light show was very cool. It had three scenes, one inside with 3D glasses, two outside standing on a podium watching an Aboriginal 3D light show and three about the gold rush in a Cinema but watching it from outside the cinema but still in the cinema. Then we got back at the huts at 10:45 and stayed up till 1:00 in the morning talking and eating lollies.

Day 3:

We woke up at 6:00 in the morning got up, got ready, packed up all our stuff, cleaned the room and hopped back on the bus and headed off to the museum of the Eureka gold rush it was so cool we got to see a painting of the fight between the council and the miners and we learned so much about all the characters in the Gold Rush mainly the miners though and we saw the real Eureka flag. We had a few stops to eat lunch and everything on the way back then we stopped at Albury. We all got off the bus to have a little afternoon tea went to the toilet and hopped on another bus to get us to Saint Pats and drop them off and then we headed for home which took an hour and we got back to school and we saw all our parents waiting for us and we had the best time you could imagine. I recommend we should go there next time if you can.

By Rose

Last Wednesday

Good afternoon parents, last Wednesday 4/5/6 attended the Ballarat excursion. A few students didn’t go, and this is what they did.

One went in the k/1 class and the other in ⅔. I had a great time doing writing and maths with them. I eventually went into ⅔ to do some of my own work there. We did religion with them. We ended up doing our own work about the Eureka stockade in 1854. We made slides about that and we even made a stop motion which is a lot of photos put in a movie.

The next day was Friday and it was just me there. I learned with the ⅔ the whole day and walked down to Judo with them. Lucky me, I got to stay there and do it also with the k/1. I spent the rest of the day with the ⅔ and then it was hometime.

By Agnes De Bono

Sovereign Hill Excursion

Last Wednesday the 12th November 2025 the 4/5/6 class went to Sovereign Hill in Ballarat for our excursion. We stayed there for three nights. It looked old fashioned with a kind of futuristic park next to the cafeteria. It felt amazing getting off the bus, because we were cramped in the bus for nine hours including stops. I also loved the way it was set out with a main street with almost all the shops including my favourite shop the lollie shop. My favourite activity was the miner game we played. Max and I were bankers the first round people tried to make us give them more money by complimenting us so we gave them less and took more for tax. But if people yelled at us we would give them a little bit more. And in the second round me and Max were miners but on separate teams and I tried to use gumnuts instead of metal shells that we were using as gold and it almost worked until they found out and I got arrested. There was also a 3D theatre that me and orlando fall asleep in. We also stopped at the Bendigo mine tour and that was fun. The first night's dinner was okay but the second night's dinner was terrible. The rice tasted like fish and lemon and the chicken tasted weird. Overall I would still recommend this to anybody that likes learning about the gold rush and the history of miners in eighteen hundreds.

By Ash

Charlie's Perspective

This is Charlie Cox’s perspective on the Ballarat Camp 2025.

This year we went to Ballarat. At first I thought I had stepped back in time. The first thing we did was go to dinner. It was ok the first night. When we got back to the cabin it was lights out at 9 o'clock we didn't go to sleep until 10ish.

The next day we went to an educational experience of 1800s mining. After that we all got free time to roam around Sovereign Hill. I went to the lolly shop, blacksmiths, saw the soldiers fire their guns, went to climb the tower, and went to the candle shop. Light out was at 10:45pm.

The day after that we woke up at 6 o'clock and got on the bus. We went to the Eureka Museum. Then we went home.

By Charlie

Band and Piano