Best of Ballarat
Art Gallery of Ballarat: the collection, the Eureka Flag and visiting
The Art Gallery of Ballarat, on Lydiard Street North in the Ballarat CBD, holds a significant collection of Australian colonial and 19th-century art alongside more recent acquisitions. It opened in 1884 as the Ballarat Fine Art Gallery and has carried its current name since 2008, so the older name still appears in guidebooks and signage but is not the gallery's official name.
The gallery owns the surviving fragments of the original Eureka Flag, flown at the Eureka Stockade in 1854, but the flag is not shown at the gallery. It has been on long-term loan since 2013 to the Eureka Centre Ballarat at the Eureka Stockade Memorial Park in Ballarat East, where it is on permanent display.
Check before you travel. The Lydiard Street building is closed for interior upgrades, including a new climate-control system funded by the City of Ballarat, and the gallery has not published a reopening date. While it is closed, the Gallery Shop is open on Lydiard Street North and the gallery's Backspace Gallery at 43 Mair Street continues to show exhibitions. Entry to the permanent collection is free when the building is open; some temporary exhibitions carry a fee.
The Lydiard Street site is a short walk from Ballarat station. The Ballarat Botanical Gardens and Lake Wendouree are a separate trip, roughly 2km northwest of the gallery, not next door to it.
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Art Gallery of Ballarat
Founded in 1884 and one of the oldest regional art galleries in Australia, with a permanent collection of Australian colonial paintings and works with strong Ballarat connections. The Lydiard Street North building is closed for interior upgrades: the Gallery Shop stays open on Lydiard Street North and exhibitions continue at the gallery's Backspace Gallery, 43 Mair Street.
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Eureka Centre Ballarat
The interpretive centre at the Eureka Stockade Memorial Park, and the home of the original Eureka Flag, on loan from the Art Gallery of Ballarat since 2013. It replaced the Museum of Australian Democracy at Eureka (MADE), which closed in 2018.
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Ballarat Mechanics' Institute
Established in 1859 and still operating on Sturt Street as an independent subscription library and events venue, with a rare-book collection and local archives.
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Backspace Gallery (Art Gallery of Ballarat)
The Art Gallery of Ballarat's off-site exhibition space at 43 Mair Street, running a changing program of contemporary and community shows while the main Lydiard Street building is closed.
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Post Office Gallery (Federation University)
Federation University's public gallery on the corner of Sturt Street and Lydiard Street North, showing students, staff and invited artists alongside selected works from the university's art and historical collections. Entry is free; open Thursday and Friday 12.30pm to 5pm, and Tuesday and Wednesday by appointment.
More Best of Ballarat
- Sovereign Hill Ballarat: A Guide to Australia's Gold Rush Living Museum
- Free Things to Do in Ballarat: Heritage, Parks and Gold Rush History
- Lake Wendouree Ballarat: Walking, Rowing and the Olympic Heritage
- Eureka Centre Ballarat: The Stockade, the Flag and Australian Democracy
- Where to Stay in Ballarat: Accommodation Guide for Visitors
- Day Trips from Ballarat: Goldfields Country and the Western District