Few cities have turned their image around as successfully as Ballarat has. Victoria’s third-largest city was once dismissed as, “old, cold and gold” but today it’s so much more.

In 2019 it was crowned a Unesco Creative City, thanks to its collection of makers, brewers, artists and artisans. The food and drink has followed – in recent years new bars and restaurants have injected flair into the main city block, all within walking distance of each other and all showcasing incredible local produce. Many are inside renovated former warehouses or buildings, and all pay homage to that history with sympathetic fit-outs retaining the exposed brick, steel girders and timber posts of yesteryear.

Of course many know the town as the site of the great alluvial gold rush, which kicked off with the discovery of gold in 1851. Evidence of that wealth can still be seen in the grand Victorian and Edwardian buildings that line the wide streets. One of Australia’s best-known tourist attractions, Sovereign Hill, puts you in the shoes of the townsfolk during those heady days.

Here you’ll be visiting the land of the Wadawurrung people, whose stories are being kept alive at the Art Gallery of Ballarat, Australia’s oldest regional gallery, and whose food and culture has infused so much of modern Ballarat.

So if you think you have Ballarat pegged, prepare to be warmly reintroduced.

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