Sovereign Hill strikes gold with new SBS show

AFTER a challenging year at the park, Sovereign Hill have not only opened its doors back up to visitors, but is also currently hosting a national television set.

Acting as the backdrop for SBS’s new drama series New Gold Mountain, the cast and crew will be in Ballarat and filming on site for two weeks, shooting only during the weekdays.

Sovereign Hill’s chief operations officer Will Flamsteed said this is an opportunity that is great for the living museum, great for the region and great for tourism.

“All of the cast are staying in local hotels for the two-week period, they are dining and eating in Ballarat, buying coffee and petrol in Ballarat,” he said.

“It’s bringing people to the region in a time of economic uncertainty, it’s great for our city.”

Boasting a mix of local and international cast members including Yoson An, Alyssa Sutherland, Christopher James Baker and Dan Spielman, the SBS murder mystery based in the gold rush will make the most of Sovereign Hill’s historically accurate settings.

While the crew are planning to shoot at several other locations around Ballarat as well, Mr Flamsteed said the sites infrastructure and staff re-enactors fit into the scenes seamlessly.

“It’s a story of a Chinese immigrant in Australia in the Gold Rush during the 1850s and, as everyone would know, Sovereign Hill is synonymous with that period of history,” he said.

“We have a great asset onsite with our main street and buildings, also our historians who enable the accuracy of the shoot and a lot of Sovereign Hill staff were also commissioned as extras.

“When the production is released later next year, you will see the streetscapes of Sovereign Hill and some of the buildings that a lot of our locals will know and a few characters that are familiar to a lot of people in Ballarat.”

The limited series plans to explore the gold rush through the perspective of Chinese miners, those who risked everything at the opportunity of wealth in a new country and culture.

“Part of what we try to do as a museum is focus on those hidden perspectives of history, we try and portray the stories of women on the Goldfields, the stories of the Chinese on the Goldfields,” Mr Flamsteed said.

“This partnership with SBS enables us to do this and from a museums perspective, that’s really important.

“We’re doing what we set out to do and what better way to do this than through opening up the museum, looking after our museum and being part of a story that shows a different perspective of the Goldfields in the 1850s.”