Ballarat /ˈbæləræt/ is a city located on the Yarrowee River and lower western plains of the Great Dividing Range in the state of Victoria, Australia, approximately 105 kilometres (65 mi) west-north-west of the state capital, Melbourne. It is the third most populous urban area in the state, with a population of 96,940 It is the state's most populated inland settlement, and third most populated inland settlement in Australia. People from Ballarat are referred to as Ballaratians.

The City of Ballarat local government area encompasses both the Greater Ballarat urban area and outlying towns with an area of 740 square kilometres (290 sq mi) and has an urban area population of 93,501. Ballarat is its most populous urban centre, seat of local government and administrative centre.

It was named by Scottish squatter Archibald Yuille who established the first settlement − his sheep run called Ballaarat − in 1837, with the name derived from a local Wathaurong Aboriginal word for the area, balla arat, thought to mean "resting place". The present spelling was officially adopted by the City of Ballarat in 1996.

It is one of the most significant Victorian era boomtowns in Australia. Just months after Victoria was granted separation from New South Wales, the Victorian gold rush transformed Ballarat from a small sheep station to a major settlement. Gold was discovered at Poverty Point on 18 August 1851 and news quickly spread of rich alluvial fields where gold could easily be extracted. Within months, approximately 20,000 migrants had rushed the district. Several Australian mining innovations were made at the Ballarat diggings including the first use of a Chilean mill in 1851 and the first use of a mine cage in 1861. Unlike many other gold rush boom towns, the Ballarat fields experienced sustained high gold yields for decades.

The Eureka Rebellion began in Ballarat, and the only armed rebellion in Australian history, the Battle of Eureka Stockade, took place on 3 December 1854. In response to the event the first male suffrage in Australia was instituted and as such Eureka is interpreted by some as the origin of democracy in Australia. The gold rush and boom gave birth to many other significant cultural legacies. The rebellion's symbol, the Eureka Flag has become a national symbol and is held at the Museum of Australian Democracy at Eureka in Ballarat. Other nationally significant heritage structures include the Ballarat Botanical Gardens, established 1857, the best example of a regional botanic gardens in Australia with the greatest concentration of public statuary including the official Prime Ministers Avenue; the longest running lyric theatre building, Her Majesty's, established 1875; the first municipal observatory, established 1886; and the earliest and longest memorial avenue, the Avenue of Honour, established between 1917 and 1919.

Proclaimed a city in 1871, its prosperity continued until late in the 19th century, after which its importance relative to both Melbourne and Geelong rapidly faded with the slowing of gold extraction. It has endured as a major regional centre hosting the rowing and kayaking events from the 1956 Summer Olympics. It is the commercial capital of the Central Highlands and the largest city in the Goldfields region of Victoria—a significant tourist destination. Ballarat is known for its history, culture and its well preserved Victorian era heritage.

History

Prehistory and European settlement
Prior to the European settlement of Australia, the Ballarat region was populated by the Wathaurong people, an Indigenous Australian people. The Boro gundidj tribe's territory was based along the Yarrowee River.

The first Europeans to sight the area were an 1837 party of six mostly Scottish squatters from Geelong led by Somerville Learmonth who were in search of land less affected by the severe drought for their sheep to graze. The party scaled Mount Buninyong; among them were Somerville's brother Thomas Livingstone Learmonth, William Cross Yuille and Henry Anderson, all three of whom later claimed land in what is now Ballarat.

The Yuille family, Scottish settlers Archibald Buchanan Yuille and his brother William Cross Yuille arrived in 1837 and squatted a 10,000-acre (40 km2) sheep run. The first houses were built near Woolshed Creek by William Yuille and Anderson (Sebastopol), while Yuille erected a hut at Black Swamp (Lake Wendouree) in 1838. Outsiders originally knew of the settlement as Yuille's Station and Yuille's Swamp. Archibald Yuille named the area "Ballaarat" which it is thought he derived from a local Wathaurong Aboriginal word for the area, balla arat. The meaning of this word is not certain; however, several translations have been made and it is generally thought to mean 'resting place'. In some dialects, balla means "bent elbow", which is translated to mean reclining or resting and arat meaning "place".

1850s: Gold rush
The first publicised discovery of gold in the region was by Thomas Hiscock on 2 August 1851 in the Buninyong region to the south. The find brought other prospectors to the area and on 19 August 1851, John Dunlop and James Regan struck gold at Poverty Point with a few ounces. Within days of the announcement of Dunlop and Regan's find, a gold rush began, bringing thousands of prospectors to the Yarrowee valley which became known as the Ballarat diggings. Yields were particularly high with the first prospectors in the area extracting between half-an-ounce (which was more than the average wage of the time) and up to five ounces of alluvial gold per day. As news of the Australian gold rushes reached the world, Ballarat gained an international reputation as a particularly rich goldfield. As a result, a huge influx of immigrants occurred, including many from Ireland and China, gathering in a collection of prospecting shanty towns around the creeks and hills. In just a few months, numerous alluvial runs were established, several deep mining leads began, and the population had swelled to over 20,000 people.

The first Post Office opened on 1 November 1851. It was the first Victorian post office to open in a gold-mining settlement. Parts of the district were first surveyed by William Urquhart as early as October 1851. By 1852 his grid plan and wide streets for land sales in the new township of West Ballarat built upon a plateau of basalt contrasted markedly with the existing narrow unplanned streets, tents and gullies of the original East Ballarat settlement. The new town's main streets of the time were named in honour of police commissioners and gold commissioners of the time, with the main street, Sturt Street named after Evelyn Pitfield Shirley Sturt, Dana Street named after Henry Dana and Lydiard Street after his assistant, Doveton Street after Francis Crossman Doveton (Ballarat's first gold commissioner), Armstrong after David Armstrong and Mair Street after William Mair. These officials were based at the government encampment (after which nearby Camp Street was named,) which was strategically positioned on an escarpment with an optimal view over the district's diggings.

The first newspaper, The Banner, published on 11 September 1853, was one of many to be distributed during the gold-rush period. Print media played a large role in the early history of the settlement. Ballarat attracted a sizable number of miners from the Californian 1848 gold rush and some were known as Ballafornians.

Civil disobedience in Ballarat led to Australia's only armed civil uprising, the Eureka Rebellion (colloquially referred to as the Eureka Stockade) which took place in Ballarat on 3 December 1854. The event, in which 22 miners were killed, is considered to be a defining moment in Australian history.

The city earned the nickname "The Golden City" in the 1850s. The gold rush population peaked at almost 60,000, mostly male diggers, by 1858. However the early population was largely itinerant. As quickly as the alluvial deposits drew prospectors to Ballarat, the rate of gold extraction fluctuated and, as they were rapidly worked dry, many quickly moved to rush other fields as new findings were announced, particularly Mount Alexander in 1852, Fiery Creek in 1855, Ararat in 1857. By 1859, a smaller number of permanent settlers numbering around 23,000, many of whom had built personal wealth in gold, established a prosperous economy based around a shift to deep underground gold mining.

Confidence of the city's early citizens in the enduring future of their city is evident in the sheer scale of many of the early public buildings, generous public recreational spaces, and opulence of many of its commercial establishments and private housing. A local steam locomotive industry developed from 1854 with the Phoenix Foundry operating until 1906. The railway came to the town with the opening of the Gee

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The Division of Ballarat (spelt Ballaarat from 1901 until the 1977 election) is an Australian Electoral Division in the state of Victoria. It was named for the provincial city of the same name by Scottish squatter Archibald Yuille, who established the first settlement − his sheep run called Ballaarat − in 1837, with the name derived from a local Wathaurong Aboriginal word for the area, balla arat, thought to mean "resting place". The division was one of the original 75 divisions contested at the first federal election.

The division currently takes in the regional City of Ballarat and the smaller towns of Bacchus Marsh, Ballan, Blackwood, Buninyong, Clunes, Creswick, Daylesford, Myrniong and Trentham and part of Burrumbeet.

The current Member for Ballarat, since the 2001 federal election, is Catherine King, a member of the Australian Labor Party.

History
At various times in its existence the division has included other towns such as Ararat, Maryborough, and Stawell.

Ballarat is a marginal seat, changing hands at intervals between the Labor Party and the non-Labor parties. Its most prominent member has been Alfred Deakin, who was Prime Minister of Australia three times. Liberal senator Michael Ronaldson was the grandson of Archibald Fisken, a former Member for Ballarat.

Ballarat also holds the distinction of seeing the closest seat result in Australian history. Nationalist Edwin Kerby unseated Labor incumbent Charles McGrath by a single vote in 1919. However, McGrath alleged irregularities, and the result was thrown out in 1920, forcing a by-election that was won by McGrath.

Members

Election results

References

External links
Division of Ballarat – Australian Electoral Commission

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Sovereign Hill is an open-air museum in Golden Point, a suburb of Ballarat, Victoria, Australia. Sovereign Hill depicts Ballarat's first ten years after the discovery of gold there in 1851. It was officially opened on 29 November 1970 and has become a nationally acclaimed tourist attraction. It is one of Victoria's most popular attractions and Ballarat's most famous.

Set in the Australian 1850s, the complex is located on a 25-hectare site that is linked to the richest alluvial gold rush in the world. The site comprises over 60 historically recreated buildings, with costumed staff and volunteers, who are able to answer questions and will pose for photos. The recreation is completed with antiques, artwork, books and papers, machinery, livestock and animals, carriages, and devices all appropriate to the era.

History
The second-largest gold nugget in the world was found in Ballarat in the Red Hill mine which is recreated in Sovereign Hill. The Welcome Nugget weighed 69 kg,(2,200 ounces) and comprised 99% pure gold, valued at about 10,500 pounds when found, and worth over US$3 million in gold now, or far more as a specimen.

The idea of Sovereign Hill was floated in Ballarat in the 1960s, as a way to preserve historic buildings and to recreate the gold diggings that made the city. The complex was officially opened to the public on Sunday 29 November 1970.

Main street is a loose reconstruction of Main Street, Ballarat East which was once the settlement's main street, consisting of timber buildings. It was consumed in a large fire during the 1860s and a more substantial town centre planned around Sturt and Lydiard Street in Ballarat West.

Attractions
The gold diggings are the centre point of the complex, featuring a winding creek in which visitors are able to pan for real gold. This area is surrounded by tents and buildings contemporary to the early years of the gold rush. A recent addition to Sovereign Hill is the Gold Pour where pure gold valued at over $100,000 is melted and poured into a three-kilogram bullion bar.

There are two mines which have guided tours at regular intervals. The Red Hill Mine is a self-guided tour that tells the story of a group of Cornishmen and their discovery of the Welcome Nugget. The Sovereign Quartz Mine runs 40 minute guided tours and features several underground displays. Above ground it also features steam-driven machinery for pumping water and processing the ore. More recently an attraction titled "Trapped" has been added. This exhibit, which is set in series of above-ground concrete structures designed to look like tunnels from within, tells the story of the mining disaster at Creswick in 1882. Twenty-two miners died because of the collapse and flooding of the New Australasian No. 2 Mine. This is still considered Australia's worst mining disaster.

The Main Street is lined with shops, two hotels and a theatre. Among the shops on Main Street there is also a blacksmith's workshop, stables, photography studio, apothecary, bakery, jeweller's shop, grocer, tentmaker, tinsmith, bank, post office, nine-pin bowling saloon and library. Behind the Main Street there are a number of cottages which are open for visitors. There are also four schools where children in school-groups dress in period costume and attend as a child of the 1850s. There is also on Main Street a Candle Dipping Shop, lolly shop and bakery. A number of workshops at Sovereign Hill, display traditional trades such as coachbuilder, wheelright, tinsmith, blacksmith and farrier.

Blood on the Southern Cross is a son et lumiere show depicting the Eureka Stockade story of 1854. It is run at night for a length of 90 minutes, using only sound and lights. There are two parts of the show: Located in Main Street and located just east of Sovereign Hill.

References
Frost, W (2005) Making an edgier interpretation of the Gold Rushes: contrasting perspectives from Australia and New Zealand. International Journal of Heritage Studies, 11 (3), pp. 235–250.

Evans, M (1991) Historical interpretation at Sovereign Hill. Australian Historical Studies 24 (96), pp. 142–152.

External links
Sovereign Hill

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The City of Ballarat is a local government area in the west of the state of Victoria, Australia, located in the western part of the state. It covers an area of 740 square kilometres (290 sq mi) and, at the 2011 Census, had a population of 93,501. It is primarily urban with the vast majority of its population living in the Greater Ballarat urban area, while other significant settlements within the LGA include Buninyong, Waubra, Learmonth and Addington. It was formed in 1994 from the amalgamation of the City of Ballaarat, Shire of Ballarat, Borough of Sebastopol and parts of the Shire of Bungaree, Shire of Buninyong, Shire of Grenville and Shire of Ripon.

The City is governed and administered by the Ballarat City Council; its seat of local government and administrative centre is located at the council headquarters in Ballarat, it also has a service centre located in Buninyong. The City is named after the main urban settlement lying in the centre-south of the LGA, that is Ballarat, which is also the LGA's most populous urban centre with a population of 85,935.

Council

Current composition
The council is composed of three wards and nine councillors, with three councillors per ward elected to represent each ward. The current Council, elected in 2012, in order of election by ward, is:

Administration and governance
The council meets in the council chambers at the council headquarters in the Ballarat Town Hall Offices, which is also the location of the council's administrative activities. It also provides customer services at both its administrative centre in Ballarat, and its service centre in Buninyong.

The council's main offices are in a modern extension behind the Town Hall called The Phoenix. In 2009 the council voted to move to a new headquarters at Civic Hall on Mair Street, which would turn the heritage listed Town Hall building into a public general purpose venue.

Localities
Addington
Alfredton
Ascot
Bakery Hill
Ballarat Central
Ballarat East
Ballarat North
Black Hill
Bo Peep
Bonshaw
Brown Hill
Buninyong
Bunkers Hill
Burrumbeet
Canadian
Cardigan
Cardigan Village
Chapel Flat
Coghills Creek
Delacombe
Durham Lead
Ercildoune
Eureka
Glen Park
Glendaruel
Glendonnell
Golden Point
Gong Gong
Invermay
Invermay Park
Lake Gardens
Lake Wendouree
Learmonth
Lucas
Magpie
Miners Rest
Mitchell Park
Mount Clear
Mount Helen
Mount Pleasant
Mount Rowan
Nerrina
Newington
Redan
Scotchmans Lead
Scotsburn
Sebastopol
Soldiers Hill
Tourello
Warrenheip
Weatherboard
Wendouree
Windermere

Sister cities
The City of Ballarat's sister cities are:

See also
List of localities (Victoria)
Ballarat

References

External links
Ballarat City Council official website
Metlink local public transport map
Link to Land Victoria interactive maps

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