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Mini-Adventure 1 Recap: Sovereign Hill

Thursday, 1 January 2009

Happy 2009 to one and all! :-) I hope you enjoyed bringing in the new year last night and are looking forward to an exciting and prosperous year ahead... I thought I'd give a small recap of this month's adventure (and my birthday present!) - A night in the museum at Sovereign Hill.

We arrived at the Sovereign Hill Lodge, perched above the mining town in time for a light lunch. After meeting the group we were given our costumes and life in the 1850s began! (Bar 1 minor costume change - the first dress they gave me was extra large and bunched down on the ground)... First instruction on the many many layers of underwear ladies had to carry around on a daily basis, as well as how to get a tiny waist! (It's too late for me apparently - you start when you're 12!) and then instructions on how to greet the commoners (tourists) and basic etiquette. Ladies had to be escorted by a man at all times and men had to always remove their top hats before going inside. The crinoline took a little getting used to - especially lifting it up at the back before sitting down while not looking like you were about to go to the bathroom! All 11 of us decked out in our finery took a tour of the township by coach, panned for gold (we found a few flakes!), chit chatted with the shop keepers, had many many photos taken of us, witnessed $125000 worth of gold being poured into an ingot (see the photo) and ventured 100ft underground on a steep incline railway to visit the mines. Dinner was a 5 course banquet (meaning that the 0.5kg I had previously lost is now back!) including oxtail and pig trotter soup and lambs brains amongst other more traditional items! We dipped paraffin candles into coloured wax to make decorative household items, played parlour games and finished the day with the spectacular sound and light show - blood on the southern cross. What I found most interesting though was that all of the negativity had been removed. Last time I went to Sovereign Hill I distinctly remember the appalling conditions in the mine, the racial tension between the Chinese miners and other miners and the terrible treatment of some of the Chinese miners being emphasised. That had all gone. Everything glorified the period (apart from the obvious corruption of the police force and poor governance that arose from creating an entire regulatory body from convicts!). Overall I thoroughly enjoyed it and my many ideas for cultural world theme parks have been reignited! :-) (Thanks very very much Ganesh)...

Labels: mini-adventure, night in the museum, sovereign hill

posted by genloz at 8:20 PM