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| Ballarat and the Victorian Goldfields |
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 BALLARAT is just over 100 km
to the west of Melbourne. The town centre has wide streets and gracious
buildings dating from its gold rush past in the mid 1800s and it is a
very pleasant place to visit. Today Ballarat is also popular for
Sovereign Hill (pictured above), a reconstruction of a gold rush era town.Part of the Goldfields and often neglected, is lovely BENDIGO, a wonderful example of a gold boom town with its Gothic and classical style architecture. CASTLEMAINE is another notable gold rush town. A little mentioned spot is Creswick, 18 km north of Ballarat, a pleasant small town with a most unusual, large natural swimming pool complete with diving boards which reminded Truly Australia of Hampstead Heath in London! Creswick had one of the richest alluvial goldfields ever found. A number of companies operate day trips to Ballarat. If you are self driving, Ballarat could be combined with Mt Macedon, Woodend and Hanging Rock, the spa towns of Daylesford and Hepburn Springs and also the Grampians. The Daylesford area in particular has a good selection of smart spa retreats and attractive bed and breakfasts - see our Melbourne and Nearby page for a section on Spa Country - Macedon/Daylesford/Hepburn Old gold towns in Victoria are not restricted to the immediate Ballarat area and are found in many other parts of the state, for example Bright and Beechworth, on the outskirts of the Rutherglen wine area and the High Country in the north east of the state, and Walhalla in mountainous country in West Gippsland (featured in our page on Eastern Victoria and the High Country). |
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| Not too far north west of Ballarat is the Pyrenees Wine Area which is featured in our Grampians and Western Victoria section |
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| Truly Australia have attempted to give an honest and objective description of the topics covered on this page and have deliberately avoided regurgitating tourist office media releases. The information shown has been compiled from a variety of reputable sources and our own experiences. We check and review this information from time to time, but we assume no responsibility for the absolute accuracy of the details given. |
