VICMining
Ballarat East
The diggers’ side of Ballarat.
1851Alluvial diggings spread east of the Yarrowee
WHAT STARTED IT
The first rich alluvial gold lay in the gullies east of the Yarrowee River, so the diggings and the stores and hotels of Main Road grew there from 1851. The government surveyed its formal township on higher ground west of the river, leaving the east with curving streets that followed old tracks and skirted mine workings.
WHAT SUSTAINED IT
Ballaarat East became a separate municipality in 1857, with its civic centre in Barkly Street, and was made a town in 1872. Floods and fires on the low gullied ground, and the pull of the railway station to the west, left it in its rival’s shadow, and the two were united in 1921.
TURNING POINTS
1851Diggers spread through the gullies east of the Yarrowee after the Golden Point find.
1854The Eureka Stockade, on the Eureka lead within the eastern diggings, is stormed on 3 December.
1857Ballaarat East is gazetted a municipality in late April; seven councillors are nominated at the Charlie Napier Hotel.
1872The borough is proclaimed the Town of Ballaarat East.
1921Ballarat East is united with the City of Ballarat.
WHAT IT DOES NOW
An inner suburb of about 5,900 people. Barkly Street still holds the former free library, the 1864 fire station and the 1861 synagogue, and Victoria Street is the main entry from Melbourne.