Arch of Victory

Sovereign Hill Goldfields Township and Museum, Ballarat

Ballarat Botanical Gardens

Ballarat Fine arts Gallery

Ballarat Eureka Centre

Lake Wendourie

Born out of the heady days of Victoria's goldrush, Ballarat has matured into an elegant city graced by distinguished public buildings, fine parks and landscaped gardens.

Where is it?: Victoria: Central. 112 kilometres north-west of Melbourne

Things to see and do:

Sovereign Hill, a reconstruction of a goldfields town in the 1860s, was the first and remains one of the best history related theme parks in Australia. It depicts everything about the goldrush ers, from the diggings, a genuine underground gold mine and aa goldfields town.

Eureka Centre, site of the Eureka Stockade where goldminers rebelled against the authorities over unfair treatment.

Ballarat's 40 ha. Botanical Gardens are known for their begonias. Set in the gardens is the cottage which stood near livery stables which poet Adam Gordon Lindsay operated in the 1860s.

Lake Wendouree, a man made lake, was the venue for the rowing events in the 1956 Melbourne Olympic Games. The lake has been developed for aquatic sports.

Ex Prisoners of War Memorial is located in the Botanical Gardens. Between the Boer War at the turn of the last century and the Korean War in the 1950's, 34,737 Australian servicemen and women were incarcerated in Prisoner-of War (POW) camps. This is the only memorial in Australia dedicated to these Australians or any recognition of their pain and suffering endured in the service of our nation.

Ballarat Fine Arts Gallery: Its collection  was established in 1884 and is the oldest and largest gallery in regional Australia.It houses major collections covering the history of Australian art from the early colonial period to the present day.

Arch of Victory: a 17 metre high arch marking the geginning of the Avenue of Honour, which stretches for 23 km and is lined with 3,900 trees, one for each man and woman who enlisted in World war I.

Lookout: Flagstaff Hill Lookout, Grenville, west of the city.

Events:

• January: Lavandula Lavender Harvest Festival
• February: Buninyong Gold king Festival
• March: Ballarat Begonia Festival
• March: Ballarat Food and Wine Festival
• May: Ballarat Autumn Day Ride
• November: Springfest
• December: Eureka commemorations

Surrounding area:

Ballarat Gold Trail explores Ballarat's goldfields heritage through a driving tour in and around Ballarat.

Great Grape Road: Winelovers are spoiled on the Great Grape Road touring route, which encompasses the wine regions of Pyrenees, Grampians and Ballarat.

There are three working farms in the Ballarat region.

La La Falls, on Moorabool River, south east of the city.

About Ballarat

Ballarat is located in the Central Highlands region it is one of Australia's larger inland cities. One of Victoria's leading goldrush towns of the 1850s, Ballarat's history and its tourism industry play a very important part in its economy, with tourist attractions such as Sovereign Hill, Lake Wendouree and the Botanic Gardens attracting visitors from across the globe.

History: In 1837, under pressure of a bad drought, Thomas Learmonth and a group of squatters explored the area to the north of their settlement near Geelong in search of better watered regions. On this journey they reached and climbed Mt. Bonan Yowing (now Buninyong) and were thus the first to see the Ballarat area. In March 1838, two squatters, Yuille and Anderson, settled with their flocks on the banks of an area known as Black Swamp, now Lake Wendouree.
During the next 13 years, shepherds and their flocks roamed in the area with Buninyong becoming the service township for the settlers. The peace and tranquillity of the district was shattered soon after the discovery of gold in the area in August 1851.
Gold was discovered at Poverty Point in 1851 by John Dunlop and James Regan who found a few ounces while panning in the Canadian Creek. By the following year there were around 20,000 diggers searching in the shafts of the Ballarat Goldfields. Due to this population explosion, Ballarat was proclaimed a town in 1852. By 1855, Ballarat was a municipality, a borough by 1863 and a city in 1870.
By the early 1850s, the Government in Melbourne had set up a system of Gold Licences to allow miners to search for gold on a specified piece of land. The Licence fee was paid regardless if the miner found gold or not. If found without a licence, the digger was forced to pay a fine of £10 or be chained to a log until the fine was paid. The diggers became frustrated over the frequency and corrupt manner of how the Goldfields Police went about their Licence checks. Due to a shortage of manpower, many of the police were ex-convicts. The Government gave them the power to undertake checks, and many, because of their background went about their duty in a ruthless manner. The diggers had no say as they had no representation in Parliament.
By 1854, the Police ordered twice weekly licence checks due to the lack of co-operation from miners. This caused more resentment around the goldfields. On 7th October 1854, James Scobie was murdered at Bentley's Eureka Hotel. On 12th October, after a riot by miners, Bentley's Hotel was burned to the ground in protest of Bentley's acquittal of murdering James Scobie. Three miners were arrested and sent to prison. A retrial followed later and Bentley and two others were found guilty of the manslaughter of James Scobie and sent to prison. On November 11, the Ballarat Reform League was formed with the view of abolishing licences and having the miners released. Due to the lack of response to these demands and set up a stockade on the Eureka Lead. Led by Peter Lalor, on by authorities and the miners increasing frustration, the miners burned their licences on the 3rd December 1854, the miners went into battle after Government soldiers unexpectedly stormed the stockade early that morning. The battle lasted for around fifteen minutes and in that time up to thirty miners and six Government troopers were killed. One hundred and fourteen miners were taken prisoner.
Within six months, legislation was passed to give miners a fairer deal. The monthly Gold Tax was abolished and miners were given the right to vote., Installed was a miners right costing £2 per year later reduced to £1. People could now see the injustice of the whole situation. All miners arrested after the rebellion and those sentenced for the burning of Bentley's Eureka Hotel were released. Peter Lalor, who had been in hiding since the uprising came out of hiding. He became the first member for Ballarat West to be represented in the Legislative Assembly and later became Speaker of the House.
In the year 1858 the second largest gold nugget ever found in Australia, the "Welcome Nugget" was found at Bakery Hill, Ballarat. By the 1860's, the prospect of finding gold in Ballarat East had nearly diminished. By this time, many of the alluvial mines in that area had declined and companies were formed to start much deeper mining in the West and South of Ballarat. To establish these mines, heavy equipment was needed. Foundries such as the Phoenix Foundry were established to cope with this demand. By now, the town was supported by industries such as flour mills and agriculture related companies. When the rail came through in 1862, it opened many more opportunities such as shops and markets, trades like blacksmiths had been established many years earlier to expand both towards Melbourne and the Wimmera. When the last mine closed in 1918, Ballarat had enough industry and service bases to support it for many years to come.

View Larger Map