Anzac Day, April 25, 2010                                               By Peter Metzke, Melbourne Ballarat is distinct from many Australian Cities and has that old world charm throughout, having been firstly established during the gold rush of the middle 1800's. (The town of  Ballarat was firstly established in 1838, then known as Ballaarat ) The City today is an architectural wonderment for all new people who visit the area having retained nearly all of the public buildings and stately homes. Within inland Victoria it forms part of what was known as the Golden Triangle with the City of Bendigo and the City of Castlemaine both having equal masterpieces in history and architecture. Each Anzac Day sees the return of many local people at dawn services throughout Australia in mark of respect for those who served at war and never returned, and for those who did return and have since died., and for those who are still suffering today. In Ballarat this dawn service was held at the Sturt Street's cenotaph at 5.45 AM for the mounting of the catafalque party, the 8th/7th battalion of the Royal Victorian Regiment in Ballarat. The service this year marked 95 years since Australia's Anzac Diggers landed at Gallipoli, and by 5.45 AM thousands of Ballarat residents lined Sturt Street to observe the dawn service. Ballarat is also known for its Avenue of Honor which consists of 3,771 trees stretching some 22 km along the Burrumbeet Road ( formally the Western Highway ) with the first planting taking place back in 1917 and finished in 1919, with 23 different species of trees. The original idea for this project attributed to Mrs W D Thompson, a director of a local clothing firm, E. Lucas and Company. In 1920, thanks to the girls who worked within this company, an amount was raised to build the Arch of Victory which still stands today, placed in front of the Avenue of Honor. For anyone visiting Ballarat whether from overseas or from other States in Australia there is much to see and accommodation is Good, with many excellent Hotels and Motel's within Ballarat, train travel to Melbourne return is in the region of $20A. Above, some photos taken in the afternoon, well after the dawn service had finished. See more of Ballarat below.                                                  Ballarat on Wikipedia                      HOME

Her Majesty's Theatre was opened on the 7th of June 1875 and is splendid throughout. Built at a cost of 13,000 pound it retains nearly all of its original features and now functions as Ballarat's performing arts centre.

The Regent Theatre was build in 1927 as a purpose built motion picture theatre and although a fire in 1943 ruined the original interior the outer facade remained. Many changes have been made since but it remains a good example of  theatre from days gone by, having a classical style of architecture reminiscent of the 1920 period.

The Ballarat Botanical Gardens are known throughout Australia especially for the begonia festival which has been a tradition dating back to 1912 and still going fine today, the gardens covering over 40 hectares are divided into three distinct areas, each with its special historic area plus varied types of gardens to suit the particular area, some of which date back to 1888. Apart from the actual gardens there are many other items for the visitor to discover; one of these is The Statuary Pavillion, housed within are some of Ballarat's finest marble statuary and gives one an idea of the wealth of the 1880's when the gold fields yielded the world's largest amount of alluvial gold - the Golden Triangle, as previously mentioned. A look inside the pavillion above - The Flight from Pompeii.