Lake Wendouree and the Botanical Gardens: Ballarat's Civic Landscape

Lake Wendouree, the central lake around which Ballarat's civic and recreational landscape is arranged, is an artificial body of water created from the swampy ground of the original Wendouree wetland to serve as the focal point for the civic improvements that gold rush wealth funded in the 1850s and 1860s. The lake's perimeter, ringed with walking paths, the botanical gardens, the rowing and sailing club facilities, and the former Gold Medal Rowing Course from the 1956 Melbourne Olympics, provides Ballarat with a civic amenity that expresses the aspirations of a city that at its peak was richer and more populous than Melbourne.

The Ballarat Botanical Gardens, established in 1858 and recognised as one of Victoria's finest heritage gardens, contain a collection of trees planted since the gardens' foundation that have grown into the exceptional specimens that give heritage gardens their irreplaceable character. The avenue of Prime Ministerial busts, a collection of sculpture representing every Australian Prime Minister from Edmund Barton onward, provides a quirky national political history supplement to the horticultural focus of the main garden.

The 1956 Olympic Rowing Course on Lake Wendouree hosted the rowing events of the Melbourne Olympics, with the lake's then-ample water providing the competition venue that was required. The lake's subsequent experience of severe drought conditions, including periods when it was completely dry, has created concern for the long-term water security of the lake that climate change projections for the Ballarat region must inform.

The walking and cycling circuit around the lake provides the recreational amenity that Ballarat residents use daily, with the combination of water views, heritage gardens, and the sports facilities that line the southern shore creating a circuit that serves fitness, recreational, and contemplative uses simultaneously. The circuit's accessibility and its free public nature make it one of Ballarat's most democratic public spaces.

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