| |
With 65 000 people, Ballarat is currently Australias largest inland city, in Wathaurong country. Ballarat is located 86 kilometres, 53.8 miles, north of Geelong, and 111 kilometres, 69.4 miles, west northwest from Melbourne. Ballarat, like Bendigo, was created on the seat of the gold rush.
| Ballarat Hotels Cars Tour Specials | |
Blacksmith Thomas Hiscock, found the first gold of the Ballarat goldfields in 1851 and later that year there were over 2000 diggers combing the area.
Australias only civil battle within its colonial settlers occurred in Ballarat in 1854. Miners were angry about the high Government licence fees on the gold fields. The miners formed a union and built the Eureka Stockade where they burned their licences and raised the blue flag of the Southern Cross, which then became known as the Eureka Flag. In 1854, 282 soldiers and police made a surprise attack on the stockade, killing around 30 miners. After a public outcry over the brutality the miners were acquitted of treason and the licence system was abolished.
| Ballarat Fine Art Gallery | |
Ballarat Fine Art Gallery has developed a reputation as Australias largest and arguably best provincial art institution. More than 6000 works chart the course of Australian art from colonial to contemporary times. The gallerys star exhibit is the original Eureka Flag, which has since come to symbolize the basic democratic ideals that are so much a part of modern Australian society.
Tiny Montrose Cottage is the last surviving original miners cottage in Ballarat. Furnished with nineteenth century furniture it offers a window into the life of a middle-class family on the gold fields.
| Ballarat Botanical Gardens | |
Ballarats Botanical Gardens found along the shore of Lake Wendouree are filled with statues, lush green lawns and exotic plants created simply for the aesthetics. One of the Gardens features is The Avenue of Prime Ministers, with every Australian prime minister to date, stretching off into the distance. In the Statuary Pavilion, female biblical figures in provocative poses surround a splendid centerpiece, Flight from Pompeii.
Central Ballarat Goldfields VIC - Victoria
|
|
Victoria - Map of Ballarat Australia
|
|
