EZTrip.com International Destination Guide and Hotel Listings

BALLARAT is a grandiose provincial city that makes a lasting impression from whichever direction you approach it. From the west, you enter via the Western Highway along the Avenue of Honour , lined on either side with over 22km of trees and dedicated to soldiers who fought in World War I. It ends at the massive Arch of Victory , through which you drive to enter Sturt Street and the city. Coming from the east, you approach the city on the Western Highway (Victoria St), flanked by lawns, trees and colourful flowerbeds. Trains pull in to the elegant 1889 station , topped by a domed clock tower.

The Ballarat area was already settled before gold was discovered, and thus preserves a rural life for which the city is the supply centre. Nonetheless, it's gold which has marked the place indelibly: over a quarter of all gold found in Victoria came from Ballarat and its fantastically rich reef mines before they were exhausted in 1918. Nowadays, in addition to the more obvious tourist attractions - especially Sovereign Hill - and fine architecture , the town is interesting in its own right, with a fairly large student population that lends some cultural presence and gives the city a reasonably active nightlife. Most people don't stay here overnight, however, as it's only little more than an hour's drive from Melbourne.