Ballarat Things to Do

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Ballarat's Botanical gardens are world famous for their beautiful begonia flowers, and the annual 2 week (March) Begonia Festival.
Here is a picture of one of the many statues in the gardens, with the Robert Clark Conservatory pyramid in the background, where many of the Begonias are grown and displayed.

Picture 4 is a statue of Wallace in the gardens.

This elaborate, patterned brick church with its dual frontage is an important feature of the streetscape and a notable building despite all the others on Lydiard Street. The interior features amphitheatre style seating.
The first church school erected on this site by the Wesleyan's slid down the hill. I wonder if God may have been making some sort of statement?

Dana St itself is named after Captain Henry Edward Pulteney Dana who was assigned to a detachment of native police. They served at Ballarat briefly, collecting the hated licence fees.
As you stand on this corner and look down the Dana St. Hill, you will be able to see where some of Ballarat's goldfields were. The valley below with its gravel lined creeks and gullies was the first to give up its riches.

Deep lead mining under the escarpment you are standing on here was the scene of subterranean warfare. When one mining company encroached on anothers claim, stinkbombs of burning sulphur were thrown into rival tunnels. If this did not evict the trespassers, the rival miners used fists, picks and shovels to drive out the invaders. It wasn't all beer and skittles as they say. Life in the mines has never been for the faint-of-heart.

This is the Trades Hall building, dating from 1887. I wondered how significant is was that it was built on such an unusual block with a decidedly pointy end at one corner. Was this indicative of how tough it was for them to get anything?
It also features a highly decorated baroque facade. The interior features cantilevered bluestone stairs and timber lined ceilings and one couldn't help but notice that the Eureka flag was being flown defiantly from atop.

This imposing edifice was constructed between 1862-1890.
It underwent extensive work on the portico and interior in 1901. The site was bought by Thomas Bath (Bath Lane) in 1853. He was issued with the first hotel licence and constructed the original timber hotel. Bath's hotel was famously the site of the Royal Commission into the Eureka Stockade uprising. The hotel was one of the first buildings to be lit by gas, made, interestingly enough, from gum leaves and oil.
The hotel was sold to Walter Craig in 1857.
Notable guests have included Prince Albert, the Duke of Edinburgh, the Duke of Clarence, the Duke and Duchess of York ( King George V and Queen Mary) the Duke and Duchess of Gloucester, Dame Nellie Melba (opera singer) and the livery stable behind the hotel was run by Adam Lindsay Gordon (poet and noted jockey) in 1867/8. There is a memorial to Adam Lindsay Gordon in no less a prestigous location than Westminster Abbey. Gordon's cottage has been removed and reconstructed in the North Botanical gardens. It is now an Art and Craft Gallery. Open daily during October to April (10am-4pm) and on weekends from May to September.

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Slotted in around Camp Street, a curiously twisted affair, is some of the most varied architecture and scenery in the town.
The first picture shows the new building for the University of Ballarat Arts and is decidedly modernistic in style, while the second pays respect to the indigenous heritage of the area and the last, with a clash of building materials, is the Fine Art Gallery.
The fourth shot is the old Post Office, now part of the university as well.

The original Hotel, the Camp Hotel, was built in 1861 on the site of the Little Engine Mine. The Art Nouveau Building you see now was erected in 1907 and remained intact until 1998 when it became Irish Murphy's.
There were so many mines it's interesting to see how the sites were utilized in later times. Though the streets may not be paved with gold, there's certainly gold beneath them.

This building was opened by Prime Minister Alfred Deakin.
The YMCA was formed in the 1880's and this building was the home of Ballarat's YMCA from 1908 until 1994.This Edwardian style building features a pepperpot dome and an impressive sheer wall disappearing down Field St.
It's sort of tucked away in this street of twists and turns, but Field Street is one of the highlights of any walking tour of Ballarat.

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The name Ballarat comes from the aboriginal “balla-arat” meaning “resting place”.
It was generally always "double a" until the local government amalgamations in 1994, when the new City of Ballarat was proclaimed. The "double a" spelling is used less now, but many local organisations like the Crafts Council and the Astronomical Society still stick to tradition by continuing with the original spelling.
Personally, I don't really care either way, as someone a tad more famous in literary circles than I once wrote, "a rose by any other name...".
In the centre of Sturt Street, itself named after a famous explorer, you will find the memorial (pic 5) to the classic saga of the Burke and Wills expedition, an ill-fated affair where a man named King was the sole survivor of a trip that went off with much fanfare and ended up in Australian folklore as a disaster.
Other statuary is reflective of the Great Britain heritage, with the Scottish poet Robbie Burns (pic 3) gaining a place. The Carrara marble statue, designed by Mr Thomas Thompson of Ballarat was commissioned by a committee chaired by Mr Thomas Stoddart in 1884 and was produced in Italy. It was unveiled on April the 21st 1887. The statue depicts a young man with his dog. The granite base is inscribed on four sides with lines from his poems.
There are two (pics 1 and 4) in honour of Queen Victoria, the latter being supplied by the CWA (Country Womens Association).
As ever in all Australian country towns, there is the monument to the fallen (pic 2), ever reflective of the folly of war and the waste of humankind.