Where to Stay in Ballarat, State of Victoria

What is Ballarat known for?

The gold rushes of the eighteen-fifties made it a boomtown that for a time rivalled Melbourne in wealth, leaving grand streets of Victorian stone, and a re-created diggings town brings the gold days back to life, while a stockade here became a byword for Australian democracy. Broad boulevards run through the centre. Gold and grandeur mark the city.

What are the main landmarks in Ballarat?

Sovereign Hill brings the gold rush back to Ballarat. A whole diggings town of the eighteen-fifties has been re-created on the old fields, the great draw of the city, above the creeks. Grand halls fill the centre.

The Art Gallery of Ballarat keeps the tattered Eureka Flag, while Saint Patrick's Cathedral and the boulevard of Sturt Street mark the Victorian town.

What is the history of Ballarat?

Ballarat exploded into life with the gold rush. In 1851 miners struck rich gold in the creeks of the highlands, and tens of thousands poured in from around the world, turning a sheep run into a goldfield famed abroad for its riches almost overnight. The diggers rose in revolt.

In 1854 the miners built a stockade at Eureka and fought a bloody battle with the soldiers over unfair licence fees, and though they lost, their stand won new rights and became a legend of Australian freedom. Gold built a grand city. The wealth of the fields raised broad boulevards, fine banks, theatres, and gardens, and Ballarat grew into a proud Victorian city of stone.

In time the gold ran out. The mines closed, but the city kept its grand streets and turned to remembering the rush, building a whole re-created diggings town for visitors. The old buildings still line the streets.

Ballarat guards its golden past on the highland plain.

Where is Ballarat?

Ballarat lies in the western highlands of Victoria, inland from the coast. The city spreads across a high plateau of grassland and old goldfields, over four hundred metres up, in the cool country west of Melbourne. Low ridges rise around the town.

The grassy plateau rolls away for miles.

What is the climate of Ballarat?

Ballarat has a cool, changeable highland climate. Warm, dry summers give way to cold, wet winters on the high plateau, and the weather can turn in an hour, colder than the coast below. Frost and fog grip the town in winter.

The uplands stay cool through much of the year.

How do you get to Ballarat?

Ballarat lies in the highlands west of Melbourne. Trains and the freeway run to it from Melbourne across the plains in about ninety minutes, and roads go on to the goldfields and the west. Local buses serve the smaller highland towns nearby.

Most arrive by road or rail from Melbourne.