Travel Guide Oceania Australia Victoria Ballarat
Once Victoria's largest city, Ballarat was a mining centre during the gold rush of the 1800s. Visitors to Ballarat will find many reminders of this glorious era, with many grand old buildings featuring in the cityscape. The big tourist magnet in the town is Sovereign Hill, an interactive museum featuring historically recreated buildings, costumed volunteers and the opportunity to pan for gold yourself.
Open air interactive museum reproducing entourage and lifestyle of the city after the discovery of gold in 1851.
Located right across the road from Sovereign Hill, Gold Museum has extensive collection of gold nuggets and coins.
The centre highlights Eureka Rebellion history as well as serves as Tourist Information centre.
Ballarat Wildlife Park features local animals such as koalas, wombats, echindas, tasmanian devils and free-range red kangaroos, and reptiles, including crocodiles and venomous snakes.
Ballarat Botanical Gardens contains a remarkable collection of mature trees and marble statues set among colourful bedding displays. Prime-Ministers' Walk alley features bronze busts of every Australian Prime Minister.
The memorial honours Australians who were held prisoner during wars involving Australia.
The tramway operates every Saturday, Sunday, and most public holidays and school holidays.
View our map of accommodation in Ballarat or use the form below to search for availability (Travellerspoint receives a commission for bookings made through the form)
Internet cafés are very common in the larger Australian cities and popular tourist destinations. However, once you leave the major population centres, you might have trouble finding somewhere to log on. Free wifi is getting more and more common (either with or without a code) in places like restaurants, some bars and coffee places and hotels. Sometimes a fee is required.
See also: International Telephone Calls
Australia is on a GSM 900/1800 network, so if you have an unlocked phone that works on those frequencies, you will be able to buy a prepaid SIM-card and stick into your phone when you're in Australia. You will receive a new Australian phone number with the SIM-card.
To dial out of Australia use the prefix 0011, followed by the calling code of the country you are trying to reach, followed by the area code of the city/town (without the 0!) and finally the phone number.
Within Australia, it is necessary to add an area code to the phone numbers if you are calling from outside the area. Below are Australia's area codes:
000 is the emergency telephone number in Australia, but the international GSM mobile emergency telephone number 112 also works on mobile phones.
Australia Post is the government's postal service. Most suburbs will have at least one post office. Opening times are mostly from around 8:00 or 9:00am to 5:00pm though larger ones keep longer hours sometimes. A standard letter or postcard sent within Australia will cost $0.60. Internationally, it costs $1.70 to send postcards anywhere in the world. Letters cost $1.85 to send within the Asia Pacific region and $2.60 to anywhere else in the world.[1]. It is also possible to send things as parcels or by express mail. You can also use use private courier companies like TNT, UPS or DHL as they are competitive and reliable.
We have a comprehensive list of accommodation in Ballarat searchable right here on Travellerspoint. You can use our map to quickly compare budget, mid-range or top of the range accommodation in Ballarat and areas nearby.
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