Walking tour explores rebellion traces

THE Eureka Centre’s Hermione Verbeek will lead a guided walking tour this month exploring sites, spaces and legacies of the Eureka Rebellion.

Set for Sunday 30 November, the Eureka Landscapes: Then and Now tour is free and will take participants from the Old Government Camp to the site of the Eureka Stockade.

The 90-minute guided tour offers a way to discover the dramatic and famed chapter in Ballarat’s past, and pick out elements that it has left behind in the urban landscape of today.

“Along the way, participants will stop at sites where miners agitated for democratic reform and the government worked to quash a looming insurrection,” said Ms Verbeek, who is education and public programs officer with the Eureka Centre.

“I’m really interested in people and their stories and what traces they have left.

“At each spot I will be highlighting a person who was involved in the stockade and how they were connected to that place in some way.

“Even if there are no tangible traces of the stockade left in a particular space, it has often shaped how people have used that space over time.

“I will particularly be looking at how it’s shaped our perceptions of those places today.

“The tour is free but people do need to register as there are limited places.”

The tour will begin at the Old Police Barracks in Alfred Deakin Place, with a complimentary shuttle service available to return participants to town from the Eureka Centre where it ends.

It’s being run twice on Sunday 30 November, with participants able to choose either an 8.45am or an 11am option. More details and bookings are through the Eureka Centre.