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Thursday, June 23, 2016

More Ballarat...

I love Ballarat...it is the buildings there I think, that prompt me to make that statement. The city has kept the elegant old buildings of yesteryear unlike my home city of Brisbane...the 'powers that be' tore so many down here, leaving relatively few 'historically significant (and beautiful) old buildings.
This visit, DH and I stayed in the lovely George Hotel in Lydiard St...a street full of beautiful old buildings. 
  I didn't take a photo in our hotel room but all the old features had been kept...fancy cornices and ceilings, and the hallways leading to the rooms were magnificent. However I did take some photos near the entrance while DH was settling the account on the day we left...
It just so happens that the TV show Dr Blake's Mysteries is set in Ballarat and that various locations around the city are used in filming...especially buildings in Lydiard St, where we were staying!

On our walks, I snapped photos of other old buildings too of course...a repurposed building; bakery downstairs and 'executive' apartments upstairs.
Across the road from the bakery...
We found these old buildings after walking down a lane way from Lydiard St...



More repurposed buildings which form part of the Federation University Campus...



The street behind that part of the uni camous...


Across the road from Her Majesty's Theatre in Lydiard St...


This building in the right of next photo which was diagonally across the street from our hotel, is on the site of where the troopers assembled in 1854, ready to march on the miners holed up at the Stockade. 

This post only shows a tiny part of the wonderful old buildings in Ballarat. In 2012 I also wrote  post about this city where I waxed lyrical about the buildings...so nothing's changed!
Once again DH and I didn't have time to visit the wonderful Sovereign Hill at Ballarat. It is a huge open air museum devoted to the history of the area. Ideally a visit there would be over 2 days. Both of us has visited Sovereign Hill before...in my case over 37 years ago! 

6 comments:

Michelle Ridgway said...

Ballarat is a great spot...love the buildings too. How cool to check out the Dr Blake locations.

Nanna Chel said...

Lovely old buildings, Maria. I think I may have visited Sovereign Hill many years ago when I lived in Victoria for a couple of years. Lots of history there.

margaret said...

Am I right in thinking I might have panned for gold here? Seems familiar from when I was in Aus in 2002. Some wonderful building you have shared today

Christine M said...

Pity you missed Sovereign Hill, Maria. I love it there. If I lived in Ballarat, I would be one of those ladies dressed up in costume, hopefully sitting by the fire quilting!

angela said...

Love Ballarat. It's so cold in Victoria today it's snowing there Thanks for sharing all the pics xx

Cynthia said...

They are wonderful old buildings. I love the first photo of the George Hotel with the other buildings reflected in its Windows.