Sovereign Hill for New Year

Today’s the day I have been waiting for: I pick up Amber at Melbourne airport after her first ever solo flight! She’s excited and nervous as you should be before a major adventure...

In my excitement I was up before the rest of the campsite. Late by Queensland standards (7am) but early for these southerners who have become accustomed to daylight savings. What a cultural different it creates. By now Mooloolaba beach would be buzzing with runners and walkers, yet Mornington Peninsular is quiet.

So I will slowly pack up my tent and get on the road right behind me (the same one the hoons were screeching down last night). It will take me about 1.5 hours to the airport and I need to be there about 1pm. Then it’s off to Ballarat t see the Blood on the Southern Cross show tonight, and bring in the New Year with my favourite person. I’ll write more later!

Well, now it’s New Year’s Day and last night was really awesome. Amber arrived without drama and we drove to Ballarat, stopping for groceries on the way. Once we set up at the Big4 Goldfields Park, we had Christmas together and shared presents.

Then, at around 8.30 we wandered the 400m to Sovereign Hill for the Blood on the Southern Cross light show which depicts the Eureka Uprising of 1854. What an extraordinary experience this is, and made even more educational when we related it to my GG Grandfather, John Grimson’s experience as a policeman in Bendigo at the time. He wrote home that he was on call and ready to respond and thought he might have to use his pistols. This is what he wrote in a letter back to England:

“I thought I should have been in for it once, at the time of the row in Ballarat. There was some went from Bendigo, at the first outbreak, and it was expected there would be several more. At the second outbreak, there was an order came up to Bendigo for thirty of us to hold ourselves in readiness, to be off in a hurry at any moment. Horses were to be saddled and we dressed, expecting to be off every minute, but it turned out we had not to go.. If we had, I suppose I should have had to have used some of my weapons there.”

Not long after the uprising, police pay was halved and John decided to try his luck with the miners instead... with some success. His wife Emily and two girls came out on a ship and they lived in a calico tent like those we will see today at Sovereign Hill.  It was a hard life and they lost three infants along the way. Things went from bad to worse, and Emily died, then John died from Tuberculosis after eight months in hospital recovering from a mining accident.

The two remaining girls, Emily and Marion, were sent back to England on a ship at the age of 11 (the same age as Amber is now) and eight. Emily was my father’s grandmother.

As you can see, the experience we are having how has tremendous personal connection and it’s time we wandered over to Sovereign Hill! More later. Happy New Year!