One hundred and ten kilometres west-northwest of Melbourne lies the historic town of Ballarat. Victoria’s coldest city and ground zero for the civil disobedience that led to an armed uprising in 1854, aka the Eureka Stockade, Ballarat is famous for its rich gold rush history.
It took us two cracks to get the Rat done. Don’t get me started on how the booker of Airbnb’s accidently booked only one night on our first foray, resulting in us being caught halfway around Lake Wendouree, a sprint to the car and making it to our accom just before they launched our bags into the street! The silver lining being that we got to stay in two amazing accommodation options over two visits.
One of the biggest drawcards to Ballarat is the living museum of Sovereign Hill, an experiential interpretation of the 1850’s boomtown, incepted in 1970 and established by community groups to preserve the local goldrush heritage. An authentic re-creation of the 19th century Australian gold rush era, it has actors in period costume who stay in character whilst engaging in daily gold-mining town activities, gold panning, horse drawn carriages and demonstrations of historic trades. Focusing more on visitor engagement rather than a theme park approach, it provides interactive experiences and workshops related to rare arts and forgotten occupations.
On our aborted first Rat quest, we tried to visit Sov Hill on the way home, only to find it was school holidays and the 5,000-tourist cap had already been met. Dodged a bullet there. Our second sortie was mission accomplished, with low tourist numbers and a thoroughly enjoyable experience.
We arrived at Sovereign Hill as they cracked the doors, on a blustery Victorian day, with winds launching massive dust clouds in the streets, the only thing missing were tumble weeds. With over 60 historically re-created buildings on a 25-hectare site, there’s a lot to see and do! You can be smart, pick up a map on arrival and plan your day, or do what we did, ricochet from place to place, missing the good stuff by minutes. D’oh!
One highlight of the day was the confectionery making demonstration that made me go and immediately buy a jar of Raspberry Drops (pro tip: get these!) Using authentic equipment, an original recipe, and trained by the OG confectioners, it was a delicious continuation of the historical Brown’s Confectionery family legacy.
Speaking of food, you can not go past The Hope Bakery, winner of the 2021 Official Great Aussie Sausage Roll Competition. A closely guarded family secret recipe, passed down for generations, handmade from scratch, with flaky, buttery pastry, mouth-watering scrumpty dumps! Size really does matter!
Notable mentions to the Fred Flintstone-Esque bowling alley, with large wooden balls you could roll down large wooden alleys, to hit large wooden pins, and the crushing reality of the challenging lives those with gold fever had, living in those teeny, tiny, smelly tents. Honestly, there’s so much to do and see at Sovereign Hill. Just go!
But Ballarat isn’t just Sovereign Hill. There’s an amazing, man-made body of water, famous for hosting the 1956 Melbourne Olympics rowing event, called Lake Wendouree. With a 6km flat track to circumnavigate, the lake is home to a variety of water birds (beware the mother swans!), is part of the Ballarat Botanical Gardens, and provides awesome photo ops, with some delicious pit-stops to fuel up along the way.
Downtown Ballarat is a lively city centre, featuring grand Victorian-era buildings including the Town Hall, art galleries, historic sites, vibrant street art and some seriously good eating. Frequent flyers of Brew pubs, we took the opportunity (on both visits), to go to Aunty Jacks. Eclectically decorated, industrial chic, with towering ceilings and distressed wooden furniture, plants draped dramatically from timber bearers, old meat safes hanging from the ceiling with big bulb lighting, and a brewery out the back! So damn Aussie!
A big fan of sustainability, AJ’s wheels their spent grain around the corner to 1816 Bakery where they make an awesome spent grain sourdough, which makes its way back to the brewery, and the rest is sent to local farmers to feed their sheep and cattle. Which might explain why the Wagyu burgers are sooo good!
With a population of over 120,000, Ballarat is a big small regional Victorian town, with an even bigger personality. Go see!
