Ballarat and Sovereign Hill

 Sovereign Hill, the recreation of the mining town of Ballarat.

 My first koala in the wild.

 Lydiard Street with its 1880's feel.

The couple on either end are our hosts Jen and Tony and the woman in red with Bev and I is also Jen. 

Saturday, February, 27^th.

I got up early, organized and left for Ballarat by 7 am. This is a weekend sponsored by the International Teacher's Association (ITA) which is comprised of past exchange participants who want to support and welcome this year's exchangees. They arrange for some local teachers to billet us in their homes.

I had to drive north to Melbourne and through the city before I picked up the Western Freeway that goes to Ballarat. Once I got out of the city the countryside was attractive, dry and hilly. I arrived by 9, just in time to have breakfast with my hosts Jen and Tony and another Canadian teacher they were hosting, also named Jen. They had been on exchange in 2014 to the Okanagan Valley. We shared some experiences before Jen, Jen and I left for Sovereign Hill. Ballarat was the site of the Australian gold run of the late 1880's and Sovereign Hill is a large outdoor museum and recreation of the town in its heyday during the goldrush. It's like a huge Black Creek Pioneer Village. Whe we got there we meet other Canadian teachers and their hosts. As teachers our admission was free, otherwise a $50 charge! We had an orientation from a teacher who works at the Hill. There are lots of schools who go here to learn about their history and apparently they run overnight trips as well. After that we all wandered off and checked out the buildings, the period shops. I bought some humbug lollies (candies) that reminded me of my grandfather. There were people in costumes who were role playing, including redcoat British soldiers and a community policeman who told us how corrupt they were and how they took advantage of the miners because they received half of every fine they handed out. There was an area where you could pan for gold and go underground to experience what the miners went through.

In the afternoon we called Jen and she came back and got us and took us for drive up a hill in the country that gave us a great view of the surrounding area and where she said we might see a koala. Sure enough we found this one resting in a tree.

Then she drove us downtown to the main street that still has a 1880's feeling to it. The population isabout 100,000. The buildings are beautiful and many have wrought iron lattice work on them. The street is apparently used as a set in many period movies and TV shows. She took us inside of the couple of them including the gold exchange and a hotel.

She drove us to her school where she teaches. It is a really nice school and has an old building and a new one that is very similar to the new one at Caulfield Junior College. It is on right on the shores of Lake Wendouree. After touring the inside of the school we walked across to the lake where they were having championship rowing competitions for schools in the area. The lake is not really big, but has a two kilometre rowing course. It is only six feet deep. As a result it gets very weedy and reedy and they have to mow it with a skiff with a rotating blade! You could see the area where they leave it as a natural wetlands habitat and the reeds stick out of the water by a couple of feet. We were also invited onto a lake paddlewheeler that does dinner cruises on the lake, but we already had plans for dinner.

We drove to a restaurant where we met up with all the Canadian and Australian teachers. We were about 30 strong. We had a couple of drinks and a nice dinner and talked about exchanges for a few hours. After which we returned to Jen and Tony's house where we had a nightcap and talked until eleven before turning in.