Few organisations are more universally known and loved in Ballarat and indeed across Victoria, than Sovereign Hill.
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And few organisations have had a tougher year than 'the Hill' and this is right at the time when they were notching up 50 years of life and contribution to the region.
They felt the very first rumbles of the coronavirus pandemic when their lucrative Chinese tourist trade dried up in January and then as the virus hit Australia and lockdown ensued, were forced into temporary closure for the longest period in their history.
But unwilling to let their big birthday bash be a fizzer, they have not been idle in these shuttered months. With this future Masterplan they are seeking to do now what some forward thinking pioneers did before them; they have unfurled a bold new idea about how Ballarat's biggest tourist attraction can stay relevant and exciting for decades to come.
In this wide ranging plan, they have sought to retain and preserve the best of the past and inject new vitality with new facilities and new focus in their operations. First and foremost is the idea that it is "living"; not a museum simply retaining the archives and artefacts of the past but making it re-live through an interaction with the present. Blowing off the dust of a musty past with re-imagined experiences.
Then there is the development of specialised areas, already playing on existing strengths. One of the most exciting is the CRAFTS centre. The emergence and proliferation of 'lost trades' is almost a post-industrial return to basics and what better place to demonstrate it than one that has sought to retain and foster some of those skills and attention to detail from a slower moving past. In the present, the riches the trades and skills offer are more valued than ever. Nor is this solely passive observation in an internet age but taking that next step into immersion and doing. By way of an example, it is not simply a Covid coincidence that the bucolic pleasures of making sourdough have become a global phenomenon in lockdown.
What this reframing and revitalisation of Sovereign Hill means to Ballarat has resonance in diverse ways. Beyond the primary prompting for the hometown population to take a fresh look, there is the element of the institution's standing in the community. Think for instance of its myriad connections within Ballarat over those fifty years; the thousands of volunteers over those decades who will see the place they loved carry on into a future without diminishment or staleness.
Or on more pragmatic terms, what this could mean in terms of an injection into the Ballarat economy. There is a boon both in terms of construction, development but perhaps even more so, in its ongoing operation. Flow-on economic benefit may be a cold rationalising term but it will bring warmth to many ancillary businesses.
And then there is something else. Attractions can be a destination, they can put a place on 'the map' but they also have a subtler way of changing a status, spreading a reputation. Every visitor who returns from their childhood to take a another look at Sovereign Hill, is one more set of eyes surprised to see how Ballarat has grown up in that interlude; a hint of sophistication added to those heritage streets, a dash of modern culture in its picturesque places and of course that simple litmus; great coffee on every corner. Old but living.
Sovereign Hill is well aware the return of international travellers could be years away but it is getting on with the job of rebuilding visitor numbers now.
Both for Ballarat and the rest of Australia this plan declares: 'Here is a destination that demands another look!'
There would be barely a child in Victoria who hasn't walked it's streets and has some particular recollection. This writer recalls a miserable rainy afternoon in the early seventies when barely a few buildings stood completed and a muddy main street was as forlorn as it was historically accurate.
But even then it was about what was happening, what was living before your eyes; the shaggy dray snorting in the cold and the blacksmith's sparks swirling in the wind as he forged its own 'bright and battering sandal'.
What was living then and hopefully with this bold plan, will go on living for generations to come.
Happy birthday, Sovereign Hill.