How Ballarat gold rush museum Sovereign Hill survived its own internal rebellion to turn 50

Marion Littlejohn says she does not belong at Sovereign Hill, the living museum 100 kilometres northwest of Melbourne.

But every week the retired school teacher is one of hundreds of volunteers who leave behind their watches and phones and dress in carefully crafted costumes to bring the Victorian goldfields to life.

“I don’t fit because the gold rush was a young experience. The average age in Ballarat in the 1850s was 22,” Ms Littlejohn said.

“When you go to Sovereign Hill you see lots of old people in costume, nobody ever picks it up because they think Sovereign Hill is olden days, so it should have old people.”