Sovereign Hill's famous diggings precinct where generations of visitors have panned for gold is set to be rejuvenated under a $6 million project that will also deliver a new pavilion catering for events for up to 500 people and a new Waterside and Wadawarrung Cultural Precinct to educate visitors about the traditional owners of the Ballarat region.
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The two-year project is expected to be complete by mid-2024 creating 69 jobs during construction and 11 new ongoing jobs.
Sovereign Hill chief executive Sara Quon said the project would "transform community culturally and economically" and was an important boost to the attraction's post-pandemic offerings.
Victorian tourism minister Martin Pakula visited Sovereign Hill on Friday to announce the funding, which will also contribute to a new 'Valley of Light' outdoor entertainment space set to attract events of up to 5000 people.
"We're investing in these projects to make sure Sovereign Hill remains one of Victoria's favourite tourist attractions well into the future," Mr Pakula said.
"We are ensuring people who do visit the regions have better attractions, accommodations, and experiences."
Included in the works, part of a masterplan for the future of the attraction, are upgrades of the gold panning precinct to enhance events and experiences at night time to encourage visitors to stay longer in town alongside improvements in accessibility to allow more people to visit.
"The diggings is where this project will really come to life," Ms Quon said.
Sovereign Hill is poised and ready to make significant growth in our visitor economy attracting new audiences and encouraging those in Ballarat to stay longer and dig deeper into what Ballarat has to offer
- Craig Fletcher
Wadawurrung Traditional Owners Corporation chief executive Paul Davis said he looked forward to more visitors learning the stories of the traditional owners of the land.
"At the moment there aren't really places that people can experience and see artifacts and understand what they are and what they mean. People can't really hear direct stories too much about Wadawarrung culture and heritage and we are hopeful that this will be more of an opportunity.
"The Wadawarrung story a lot of it's not told. The the history of places like Ballarat here and others where there was that gold rush in the mid 1800s created enormous change for those Wadawarrung people and because of that a lot of history and connections have been damaged so there's still a lot of work to be done to build those connections again restore those connections."
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Sovereign Hill board president Craig Fletcher said the $6 million investment was "incredible" and marked a red-letter day for Ballarat.
"It does so many things, for so many people, for such a long time," he said.
"Sovereign Hill is poised and ready to make significant growth in our visitor economy attracting new audiences and encouraging those in Ballarat to stay longer and dig deeper into what Ballarat has to offer.
"(This) changes Sovereign Hill for the better for the future."
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