Ballarat

Worth seeing in and around Ballarat

10 places within 25 km that the world writes about, in the order of how widely: the ones a visitor has heard of first, then the ones only a local would name.

1. 01
   Ballarat Botanical Gardens

   The Ballarat Botanical Gardens Reserve, located on the western shore of picturesque Lake Wendouree, in Ballarat, Victoria, Australia, covers an area of 40 hectares which is divided into three distinct zones. The central Botanical Gardens reserve in the 'gardenesque' style of the Victorian pleasure garden.

   2.7 km · botanical garden in Victoria, Australia · Wikipedia
2. 02
   Lake Wendouree

   Lake Wendouree is an artificially created and maintained shallow urban lake located adjacent to the suburb of the same name in the city of Ballarat, Victoria, Australia. The name Wendouree comes from a local Aboriginal word wendaaree which means 'go away': a story is told that when settler William Cross Yuille asked a local Indigenous woman what the name of the swamp was, that was her reply.

   1.7 km · lake near the city of Ballarat, Victoria, Australia · Wikipedia
3. 03
   St Patrick's Cathedral

   St Patrick's Cathedral is the Roman Catholic cathedral church of the Diocese of Ballarat and seat of Bishop Mark William Freeman. The cathedral is located in the provincial city of Ballarat, Victoria, Australia.

   400 m · heritage-listed cathedral church of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Ballarat, Australia · Wikipedia
4. 04
   Federation University Australia

   Federation University Australia is a public university based in Victoria, Australia. It is the modern descendant of the School of Mines Ballarat, established in 1870 as the fourth tertiary institution in Australia, which evolved to form the modern university as it is today.

   8.2 km · dual-sector university in Victoria, Australia · Wikipedia
5. 05
   Australian Ex-Prisoners of War Memorial

   The Australian Ex-Prisoners of War Memorial was dedicated on Friday, 6 February 2004. It is located on the southern approaches to the Ballarat Botanical Gardens, on Wendouree Parade and adjacent to Lake Wendouree.

   2.5 km · war memorial in Ballarat, Victoria, Australia · Wikipedia
6. 06
   Sovereign Hill

   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 and has become a nationally acclaimed tourist attraction.

   2.3 km · open-air museum recreating an 1850s gold mining township in Golden Point, a suburb of Ballarat, Australia · Wikipedia
7. 07
   Eastern Oval

   Eastern Oval is an Australian rules football and cricket ground in the city of Ballarat, Victoria, Australia. The first recorded match on the ground in 1862 when Ballarat played HH Stephenson's XI. The ground was an important early centre of cricket in Victoria, hosting the Australia team, as well as personal teams from important cricketing figures such as George Parr, W. G. Grace and John Lillywhite to name a few.

   1.5 km · sports ground in Ballarat, Australia · Wikipedia
8. 08
   Anglican Diocese of Ballarat

   The Diocese of Ballarat is a diocese of the Anglican Church of Australia, which was created out of the Diocese of Melbourne in 1875. It is situated in the Ballarat region of the state of Victoria, Australia and covers the south-west region of the state.

   1 km · Diocese of the Anglican Church of Australia · Wikipedia
9. 09
   Ballarat Gaol

   The Ballarat Gaol, a former maximum security prison for males, females and children, is located in Ballarat, Victoria, Australia. Replacing temporary structures including prison hulks in the Bay of Port Phillip and holding yards in Ballarat, the jail operated between 1862 and 1965.

   1 km · heritage listed site in Victoria, Australia · Wikipedia
10. 10
    Ballarat Wildlife Park

    The Ballarat Wildlife Park is a zoo in Ballarat, Victoria. Opened in February 1985, it is privately owned by founder Greg Parker, and Julia Leonard and managed by Jared Mulholland.

    4.1 km · zoo in Victoria, Australia · Wikipedia

Ranked by the number of language editions of Wikipedia with an article on each, from Wikidata; the sentences are the openings of those articles, CC BY-SA 4.0.

What Wikivoyage says to see

1. 01
   Art Gallery of Ballarat

   40 Lydiard Street North, fax: +61 3 5320 5791.

2. 02
   Ballarat Botanical Gardens
3. 03
   Ballarat Tramway Museum

   The museum operates a fleet of historic trams along 1.3 km of original track through the Ballarat Botanical Gardens.

4. 04
   Ballarat Wildlife Park

   Corner York and Fussell Streets, Ballarat East, fax: +61 3 5333 4025, info@wildlifepark.com.au.

5. 05
   Museum of Australian Democracy at Eureka
6. 06
   Kryal Castle

   A replica medieval castle situated just eight kilometres out of Ballarat on the Western Freeway.

From Wikivoyage: Ballarat, CC BY-SA 4.0. Not yet checked by us.

Things to do

1. 01
   Begonia Festival
2. 02
   Ballarat Heritage Weekend
3. 03
   Eureka Stadium

From Wikivoyage: Ballarat, CC BY-SA 4.0. Not yet checked by us.

Where to eat

Crazy Asian, 107 Bridge Mall. Good value Chinese, Indian and Thai. L'espresso, 417 Sturt St,. Formally a music store, this place serves some of the best coffee in town, along with quality Italian-based fare that is interesting and reasonably priced. Choose a CD from the wall to listen to, and try the housemade icecream. Eureka Pizza & Bistro, 316 Sturt St. Italian institution.

From Wikivoyage: Ballarat, CC BY-SA 4.0. Not yet checked by us.

Getting to Ballarat

Airports

Melbourne Avalon (AVV), 76 km · Melbourne (MEL), 88 km

Stations

Ballarat Airfield, 7.4 km · Wendouree, 2.6 km · Ballarat Aviation Museum, 7.3 km

• Geelong/Melbourne → Ballarat

  106 km · quickest by road, 2h 21m · A$15–19
  GuideToday
• Melbourne → Ballarat

  102 km · quickest by road, 2h 16m · A$14–18
  GuideToday
• Adelaide → Ballarat

  555 km · quickest by air, 8h 10m · A$360–510
  GuideToday
• From anywhere

  The planner compares every way there from wherever you are.
  Plan a trip

Road and air are today’s quick answer; timetabled trains, buses and ferries load on the results page from the operators’ feeds.

No local-transport research exists yet for Ballarat

Our researched notes are written from a sourced entry: every shared taxi, boat and village bus with its operator, its rule, its fare and the year we saw it, and what could not be confirmed. Nobody has done that work for Ballarat. What is above is what we hold from open sources; nothing here pretends to be more.

If you know how people move in Ballarat – the stand, the rule, the fare – tell us, and the note gets an entry.