Page 440 - (DK Eyewitness) Travel Guide - Australia

438  VIC T ORIA

e Ballarat E Art Gallery of Ballarat
40 Lydiard St North. Tel (03) 5320 5858.
In 1851, the cry of “Gold!” shattered the tranquillity of this Open 10am–5pm daily. Closed Good
pleasant, pastoral district. Within months, tent cities covered Fri, 25 Dec. & 7 ∑ artgalleryof
the hills and thousands of people were pouring in from ballarat.com.au
around the world, eager to make their fortune. While there Ballarat has always enjoyed the
spirit of benefaction. Huge
were spectacular finds, the sustainable prosperity was fortunes were made overnight
accrued to traders, farmers and other modest industries, and and much of these found their
Ballarat grew in proportion to their growing wealth. The gold way into the town’s institutions.
rush petered out in the late 1870s. However, the two decades The Art Gallery of Ballarat has
of wealth can still be seen in the lavish buildings, broad been a major recipient of such
streets, ornate statuary and grand gardens. Today, Ballarat goodwill, enabling it to establish
an impressive reputation as
is Victoria’s largest inland city. Australia’s largest and arguably
best provincial art institution.
More than 6,000 works chart
the course of Australian art from
colonial to contemporary times.
Gold field artists include Eugene
von Guerard, whose work Old
Ballarat as it was in the summer
of 1853–54 1853–54 is an extraordinary
of of
evocation of the town’s early tent
cities. The gallery’s star exhibit is
the original Eureka Flag, which
has since come to symbolize the
basic democratic ideals which
are so much a part of modern
Australian society.
E Museum of Australian
Democracy at Eureka
Ornate façades of historic buildings along Lydiard Street (M.A.D.E)
Cnr Stawell Sth and Eureka streets.
P Lydiard Street royal lanterns were constructed Tel 1800 287 113. Open 10am–5pm
The wealth of the gold fields outside to honour a visit by the daily. & 7 ∑ made.org
attracted a range of people, Duke of Clarence and the Duke The Museum of Australian
among them the educated and of York (later King George V). Democracy at Eureka is located
well travelled. Lydiard Street This historic hotel is still in in East Ballarat, at what was the
reflects their influence as a operation. site of the Eureka Stockade. The
well-proportioned streetscape,
boasting buildings of exemplary
quality and design. The Eureka Stockade
At the northern end lies the An insurrection at Eureka in 1854, which arose as a result of gold
railway station. Built in 1862, it diggers’ dissatisfaction with high licensing fees on the gold fields,
features an arched train entrance heralded the move towards egalitarianism in Australia. When hotel-
and Tuscan pilasters. A neat row owner James Bentley was acquitted of murdering a young digger,
of four banks was designed by James Scobie, after a row about his entry
prominent architect Leonard into the Eureka Hotel, it incited anger
Terry, whose concern for a among the miners. Led by the
balanced streetscape is clearly charismatic Peter Lalor, the diggers built
expressed in their elegant a stockade, burned their licences and
façades. Her Majesty’s Theatre raised the blue flag of the Southern
is an elaborate 19th-century Cross, which became known as
structure and Australia’s oldest the Eureka Flag. On Sunday,
3 December 1854, 282 soldiers
surviving purpose-built theatre. and police made a surprise attack
Opposite the theatre is Craig’s on the stockade, killing around
Royal Hotel, begun in 1852. The 30 diggers. After a public outcry
hotel was extensively renovated over the brutality, however,
in 1867 for a visit by Prince the diggers were acquitted
Alfred, Duke of Edinburgh, of treason and the licence
including the construction of a system was abolished. Rebel leader Peter Lalor
special Prince’s Room. In 1881,
For hotels and restaurants in this area see pp494–5 and pp529–31