Join us for this year’s International Women’s Day as Sovereign Hill Museums Association explores this year’s theme, Count Her In, and look to the past to explore pathways to greater economic inclusion for women and girls everywhere.

When gold was discovered in Victoria in 1851 women flocked to the Ballarat goldfields to try their hands at a new life and to find prosperity. But women had been part of the Ballarat region for much longer, First Nations women for generations. PhD candidate Sharni Brownbridge will share with us the stories of some the women living in the Ballarat area from 1838 and in the first wild days after gold discovery and show how they acted as key members of these societies, acting as farm workers, gold fossickers, business owners and creators of social connection.