Discover 15 hidden attractions, cool sights, and unusual things to do in Ballarat (Australia). Don't miss out on these must-see attractions: Kryal Castle, Ballarat Tramway Museum, and Sovereign Hill. Also, be sure to include Art Gallery of Ballarat in your itinerary.
Below, you can find the list of the most amazing places you should visit in Ballarat (Victoria).
Table of Contents
Kryal Castle
Accommodation. Kryal Castle is a replica medieval castle located eight kilometres east of Ballarat, Australia, at Leigh Creek, just north of Dunnstown, in the foothills of Mount Warrenheip. The castle's name derives from the first initial and surname of its builder, Keith Ryall, who had made his fortune selling body armour. Construction began in 1972, and the attraction was opened to the public in 1974.
The castle features a moat and drawbridge, a maze, castle towers, stocks, and an armoury. There are also shows involving jousting, live theatre, a jester, juggler and fire eating, as well as a "Wax Of Torture" museum. The castle also provides accommodation and hosts weddings and conferences.
In 2007 the property was listed for sale with an asking price of $10 million, but failed to find a buyer. There was interest from some parties in turning it into a medieval-style brothel. After having been on the market for several years, it was sold in January 2011 to Jay Finch and Wendy Alexander, who intended to continue it as a hotel and theme park. However, in August 2011 ownership of the property was returned to Keith Ryall after the Finch family was unable to complete payment for it.
In January 2012, Kryal Castle was acquired by Castle Tourism & Entertainment Pty Ltd. It closed for a major renovation and upgrade, reopening in 2013, having been developed into a multi-use venue, offering daytime and night-time tourism, and entertainment experiences. There are Castle Suites with four-star accommodation, as well as function, wedding and conferencing facilities. Medieval adventure, fantasy and theme park concepts have been developed. The medieval sport of jousting has been reintroduced along with sound and light attractions.[1]
Address: 121 Forbes Rd, 3352 Ballarat
Ballarat Tramway Museum
Museum in Lake Wendouree, Victoria, Australia. The Ballarat Tramway Museum is an operating tramway museum, located in Ballarat, Victoria, Australia. The museum is run by volunteers and has a fleet of trams which operate on part of the original horse tramway around Lake Wendouree and the Botanical Gardens. It has a large research collection, archive of information and more than 3,500 items about the Ballarat tramways. The trams in Ballarat operated on a large network through the city from 1887 until 1971.[2]
Address: Wendouree Parade, 3350 Ballarat
Sovereign Hill
Museum in the Golden Point, Victoria, Australia. 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.[3]
Address: Bradshaw Street, 3350 Ballarat
Art Gallery of Ballarat
Art gallery in Ballarat Central, Australia. The Art Gallery of Ballarat is the oldest and largest regional art gallery in Australia. Established in 1884 as the Ballarat Fine Art Gallery by the citizens of Ballarat, both the building and part of its collection is listed on the Victorian Heritage Register and by the National Trust of Victoria.
The gallery was noted as the home of the original Eureka Flag. The Art Gallery houses major collections covering the history of Australian art from the early colonial period to the present day, which are on display in a thematic hang covering a range of themes including Place, Home, Country and Disruption.
For the first five years of the gallery's life, the Association rented the large supper room of the Ballarat Academy of Music, now Her Majesty's Theatre, which was made available by Sir William Clarke, 1st Baronet. The Association then worked to secure land on the site of the Government Camp and to raise funds for a permanent home for its collection. Much of the energy and the money came from a prominent Ballarat citizen, James Oddie. The current building is the oldest purpose built art gallery building in Australia. Designed by Tappin, Gilbert and Dennehy in the Renaissance Revival architecture style as a bluestone brick and render facade and stone stairway, the foundation stone was laid by Sir William Clarke in 1887 to commemorate Queen Victoria's Golden Jubilee. The new building was opened by Alfred Deakin on Friday 13 June 1890.
The gallery is a not-for-profit company limited by guarantee, of which the City of Ballarat is the sole shareholder. It is administered by a board of directors. Louise Tegart is the current Director.
The Gallery is supported by the Art Gallery of Ballarat Foundation, which raises funds and receives donations on behalf of the gallery and by the Art Gallery of Ballarat Association, an independent organisation which established the gallery in 1884 and gave it to the Ballaarat City Council in 1972. Membership of the Association is open to members of the public and brings with it a range of benefits, including discounts at the Gallery shop and cafe and invitations to exhibition openings.[4]
Address: 40 Lydiard St North, 3350 Ballarat
Stockland Wendouree
City in Australia. Wendouree is a large suburb on the north western rural-urban fringe of the city of Ballarat, in Victoria, Australia. It is the most populated suburb in the City of Ballarat with a total of 15,000 inhabitants living in the greater Wendouree, Lake Gardens and Miners Rest area.
It is named after nearby Lake Wendouree, which derives its name from the Wathaurong word wendaaree, meaning "be off" (or "go away"). It incorporates the unofficial locality of Wendouree West.
Wendouree has the second major commercial and business hub in Greater Ballarat, and is also the location of several Ballarat-based commercial and industrial firms.
Landmarks of Wendouree include the Ballarat Sports and Events Centre, the home of the Ballarat Miners and Ballarat Rush; the Ballarat Showgrounds (Venue for the annual Ballarat Show); Eureka Stadium (Home ground of the North Ballarat (Australian Football) club and Australian Football League venue), the former St Mary's Redemptorist Monastery, Stockland Wendouree Shopping Complex, and the Wendouree Centre for the Performing Arts.[5]
Address: Gillies St, 3355 Wendouree
Ballarat Wildlife Park
Wildlife park in Ballarat East, Australia. Ballarat Wildlife Park is an interactive wildlife park situated in Ballarat, Australia which was opened by Greg Parker in 1987. The Park is situated on 37 acres of natural bush land.[6]
Address: 250 Fussell St, 3350 Ballarat
Ballarat Botanical Gardens
Picturesque gardens with a greenhouse. 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. On either side there are open parkland buffers known as the North and South Gardens. The Gardens celebrated its sesquicentenary in 2007.[7]
Address: Gillies Street, 3350 Ballarat
Australian Ex-Prisoners of War Memorial
Memorial park in Lake Wendouree, Victoria, Australia. 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.[8]
Address: Ballarat Botanical Gardens, 3352 Ballarat
Museum of Australian Democracy at Eureka
Museum in the Eureka, Victoria, Australia. The Museum of Australian Democracy at Eureka was a museum dedicated to democracy, located at the site of the Eureka Rebellion in Ballarat, Victoria, Australia. It opened on 4 May 2013 and replaced the previous Eureka Stockade Centre. MADE's launch in 2013 was hampered by budget overruns and long delays.
The Museum focused on the Eureka Stockade as the place of origin of Australia's democracy. The Museum housed the original Eureka Flag, upon which the rebels swore an oath to the flag as a symbol of defiance against the ruling colonial government. The flag was on loan from the Art Gallery of Ballarat.[9]
Address: 102 Stawell Street South, 3350 Ballarat
Post Office Gallery
Art gallery in Ballarat Central, Australia. The Post Office Gallery is an art gallery in Ballarat, Victoria, Australia.
The former Ballarat Post Office is located on the corner of Sturt and Lydiard Streets. Classified by Heritage Victoria it was built during William Wardell's tenure as Inspector-General and Chief Architect of the Public Works Department. The Ballarat Post Office was the largest of its kind after the Melbourne General Post Office.
In 2002 the Ballarat Post Office became part of the University of Ballarat Arts Academy which includes the Post Office Gallery.[10]
Lake Wendouree
Lake in Australia. 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.[11]
Ballarat Yacht Club
Sailing, Marina
Address: Wendouree Parade, 3350 Lake Wendouree
Sturt Street Gardens
Park in Ballarat Central, Australia. The Sturt Street Gardens is a central reservation running along Sturt Street, one of the main thoroughfares of Ballarat,. The formal gardens span 13 city blocks from Grenville Street in the east to Pleasant Street in the west, are 20 metres wide and cover an area of 2.87 hectares running east–west.
The historic gardens are the main gardens of Ballarat's Central Business District and significant for their heritage features including significant statues, bandstands, memorials and trees. Three of the reserve's monuments are listed on the Victorian Heritage Register and the entire gardens are listed as a heritage precinct by the City of Ballarat. The gardens are important to the culture of Ballarat.
Several blocks along the gardens have individual names based on their history and features such as Queen Victoria Square and Alexandra Square.[12]
Address: 731 Sturt Street, Ballarat
Ballarat East Fire Station
The Ballarat East Fire Station, in Ballarat East, Victoria, Australia is the oldest continually operating fire station in the Southern Hemisphere.
The tower was designed by local architect Henry Caselli and was built in 1864 by William Cowland, a builder and fire brigade volunteer. Caselli's design for an Engine House was not built; an 1858-built structure was used. The Engine House was replaced by a new one in 1916.
It was one site of the first operational telephone, made by Henry Sutton, which connected this station to the Ballarat Fire Station in Ballarat, to help the two stations pinpoint the locations of fires and coordinate their responses.
It is located at 20-22 Barkly Street in Ballarat East.[13]
Prime Ministers Avenue
The Prime Ministers Avenue is a collection of busts of the prime ministers of Australia, located at the Ballarat Botanical Gardens in Ballarat, Victoria. The busts are displayed as bronze portraits mounted on polished granite pedestals. It attracts thousands of visitors annually.
The 28th Prime Minister, Tony Abbott, was the most recent Prime Minister to be added to the Avenue. He attended the unveiling on 5 June 2017.[14]