After the Ballarat Marathon: Sovereign Hill

The Route: Ballarat Central → Sovereign Hill → Gold Museum → Ballarat Central Logistics: Short drive, taxi or local bus from the centre, about 10 minutes. On foot it is a 25 to 30 minute walk. Marathon Month: April Duration: Day trip

Ballarat Town Hall ──(approx. 10 mins by car or bus)──> Sovereign Hill ──(2 mins walk)──> Gold Museum
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         └───────────────────────────(approx. 10 mins)───────────────────────────────────────┘

The Ballarat Marathon runs two laps of Sturt Street and the lake in late April. The wide boulevard runners climbed at the start of each lap exists because of gold. In 1851 prospectors found it here, and within a decade Ballarat was one of the richest places on earth. Sovereign Hill, a few kilometres from the Town Hall, rebuilds the town those miners lived in, on the site where they dug.

April in Ballarat is autumn. Mornings are cold, days are mild, and Sovereign Hill's exotic trees turn yellow. Victorian school holidays fall around Easter, when the site is busiest, so the week after the race may be quieter depending on the year. A warm jacket is useful: the site is exposed on a hillside, and Ballarat's weather can change in an afternoon.

Sovereign Hill is on Bradshaw Street, south-east of the centre, about 10 minutes by car. Local buses run from the city centre; check the route at ptv.vic.gov.au. Book tickets online. Entry is priced for a full day, and the ticket also covers the Gold Museum across the road; use any published figure as a guide only.

Main Street and the Diggings

Sovereign Hill opened in 1970 as an outdoor museum, and its staff dress, work and speak as if it were the 1850s: blacksmiths, confectioners, a printer, soldiers firing muskets. Main Street, lined with shops, hotels and a theatre, runs down a gentle slope on packed gravel. It is walkable on post-marathon legs, slowly. There are benches outside most buildings and plenty of excuses to sit.

Below the street, the Red Hill Gully Diggings recreate the tents and shafts of the first years of the rush. Panning for gold in the creek is included in the entry and involves crouching by the water, which the quads may have opinions about. Kneel instead. Most people find a few specks.

The underground mine tour involves stairs and uneven ground in the dark. On the day after the race, skip it.

The Gold Museum

Across Bradshaw Street, the Gold Museum tells the wider story of Ballarat's gold, with nuggets, coins and the history of the Eureka rebellion of 1854, when miners protesting against licence fees built a stockade and were overrun by troops. It is indoors, level and seated in places, and it is the right way to end a day on your feet.

Getting Back

Taxis and buses run back to the city centre in about 10 minutes. The walk back down to the Town Hall is 25 to 30 minutes, mostly downhill. On post-marathon quads, downhill is the harder direction.