On your childhood trips to Sovereign Hill, you probably sifted wet sand in a pan, tasted homemade boiled lollies and watched a demonstration of molten gold being set into bars. You probably did not learn about how miners made their whisky.

(By the by, we use some of the same techniques today.)

“We’re still using copper pot stills to distil our spirit,” says Archie Rose Distilling Co ambassador Paul Slater. “That hasn’t changed – it’s been refined but the basic principle is the same.”

Local whisky distilleries have exploded in popularity in the last decade, but it’s fair to say that the production of Victorian whisky is nothing new – according to Sovereign Hill’s records, anyway. It’s part of the inspiration for its Whisky in the Wheelwrights event on May 27, in which the outdoor museum’s coachbuilders and wheelwrights will be joined by representatives from distilleries Starward and Archie Rose, connecting the dots between modern craft distilling and gold rush-era techniques.

“What’s crucially important is time in oak barrels, the maturation process – that’s one constant [about distilling in the 1880s compared to now]. You can’t change time,” says Slater. “As much as we’re able to get our hands on a wider array of oak, and can be more particular about what we’re using now, we still can’t change those basic facets.”

The whisky event is just one in a slate of programming for Sovereign Hill’s Autumn Series on rare trades and artisanal craft. Making bespoke machinery, cabinetry, costume design or spirits isn’t just a hobby for those that practice at Sovereign Hill – it’s a full-time job that requires dedication to learning and refining the art. Most are apprentices or qualified in modern evolutions of those old skills, balancing historical accuracy with contemporary relevance.

“If people thought about where [Sovereign Hill’s] horse-drawn vehicles come from, people don’t make them anymore, you can’t just buy them,” says Erin Santamaria, head of rare trades and programming at Sovereign Hill. “We have a whole team of coachbuilders, wheelwrights and blacksmiths and that’s their job, to make the horse-drawn vehicles, maintain them, make sure they’re safe every day.

“It’s really important that there is that connection and engagement with contemporary practice to keep these rare trades alive.”

Contemporary practice can improve upon the past. While whisky-making really hasn’t changed all that much, today’s whisky probably tastes much better. Regulation is one element which 19th-century distilling avoided. “Regulations were quite loose and poorly defined in Australia back then,” Slater says. “A lot of the time, when it was matured in barrels, they were using whatever barrels they could get their hands on. They were used to transport all sorts of things. Imagine drinking a whisky that’s been matured in a barrel that previously contained kippers.”

By the 1860s, illicit and poorly regulated distilling was being supplanted by genuine distilleries, like Warrenheip just outside of Ballarat. By looking back across the full history of Australian whisky, Slater and Santamaria are hoping to demonstrate just how much we still owe the past. The Whisky in the Wheelwrights event will blend the historical with the contemporary, with tastings of modern whisky, hot tyring and steam bending demonstrations from the rare trades team, and a guided conversation to link it all together.

“We’re still relying on things like oak barrels, the ancient art of cooperage,” says Slater. “It opens up a really good conversation between the rare trades team there at Sovereign Hill and us as modern whisky-makers who are still using the old wood and copper vessels.”

Whisky in the Wheelwrights is part of Sovereign Hill’s Autumn Program and will be held on Friday May 27.

This article is produced by Broadsheet in partnership with Sovereign Hill.