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Over the coming autumn months, visitors to Ballarat are being encouraged to take a ‘time-out’ and reflect on the city’s illustrious past, its creatively exciting future, and its deliciously varied present.
From the upcoming Pyrenees Unearthed Wine and Food Festival to May’s Ballarat Heritage Festival; tasting a tipple at local distilleries to brewing your own at Beer School and sampling seasonal dining at a new venue – Ballarat has a wealth of experiences to enjoy and places to discover. Located just 90 minutes by car from Melbourne, Ballarat is an ideal weekend or day trip destination.
Eyes firmly on the future, a host of new enterprises have recently opened their doors in the city. These include Ellington’s Wine Bar with its cool combination of live jazz, bottle shop and rooftop bar, and perhaps the most awaited opening – The Goods Shed.
Located next to Ballarat Railway Station, The Goods Shed will provide the city with a new social, cultural and hospitality hub, all housed inside a beautifully refurbished heritage space. Eventually providing a complete dine, play, stay experience (including a new distillery, Nolan’s all-day dining and Boom Time Dumplings), the precinct already offers accommodation in the Quest Ballarat Station.
After somewhere to stay that’s a bit more out there and away from it all? The newest addition to Ballarat’s accommodation portfolio is Jean-Claude – a 1970s York caravan that has been lovingly restored and sits next to a dam (the van on a dam – hence the name) alongside a well-appointed amenities shack. The van itself offers king-size bed luxury and all mod-cons. It’s the perfect location for serious reflection.
Whether communing with nature, dining with delight or drinking with discernment, there is plenty to see, do, and enjoy in the Ballarat region this autumn.
Pyrenees Unearthed Wine and Food Festival
Saturday 9 April 2022
A day of sensational wine, delicious food, local produce and live entertainment, the Pyrenees Unearthed Wine & Food Festival promises an enjoyable day out for all ages. Held along the banks of the Avoca River, ticket-holders can sample a wide range of wines from 25 local wineries, such as Peerick Wines, Blue Pyrenees and Bigibila Wines. Local Red Duck beer, Learmonth Cider and Mrs Baker’s gin are also available for purchase by the glass and to take away. Free children’s activities will be held throughout the day and return buses to the event are available from Ballarat.
The festival is a major drawcard to the region, and many visitors make it a weekend break, staying in Ballarat as a base from which to explore the Pyrenee region’s other attractions. There are ironbark forests, flora and fauna reserves, great spots to picnic and lots of good bushwalking tracks, especially within the Mount Buangor and Mount Cole State Forests.
A sell-out success last year, tickets to this year’s wine and food festival are already in high demand so visitors are advised to get in early.
Of course, there are many other ways for bon vivants to sample the wines, beers, and spirits for which the Ballarat and Pyrnees regions are now so famous.
Call in at a cellar door
Eastern Peake vineyard – located at Coghills Creek, just 25km from Ballarat – is a leader in boutique wines (chardonnay, pinot tache, pinot noir and syrah varietals), selling exclusively to restaurants and niche retailers nationally. With a recently re-opened cellar door, wine connoisseurs again have the chance to experience Eastern Peake wines in the most stunning of natural surroundings, against the backdrop of the rugged granite outcrop of Mount Bolton.
Well worth an autumn visit is Captains Creek organic winery, just a short drive north of the CBD. The same family has been running this organic farm for four generations, which ventured successfully into wine grapes in the early 1990s. Today, visitors can sip a pinot noir by a century-old fireplace in the renovated Workers’ Hut and enjoy a lunch of farm-raised lamb. The winery also offers off-grid tiny house-style accommodation nearby at Monterey Eco Stay, thoughtfully designed to lessen its environmental footprint and reliance on natural resources.
Ten minutes’ drive west of Ballarat CBD, independent winemaker Michael Unwin Wines is an advocate for sustainability, and the eponymous winemaker has built the cellar door, winemaking, barrelling and bottling sheds on an earthen floor to significantly reduce the carbon footprint of the site, as well as operating on solar power.
Housed in a 150-year-old former produce store, tentmakers, and motor workshop in the heart of Ballarat, Mitchell Harris Wine Bar showcases the wine grower’s classic Western Victorian pepper and spice in its Pyrenees reds as well as the finesse of its Sabre sparkling, alongside a carefully curated menu that includes substantial grazing boards and indulgent desserts with a local produce focus .
Distilled pleasures to excitement brewing
Ballarat has a long history of distilling, both illicit and licit, with the first legal distillery in the colony of Victoria producing gin and whisky in Ballarat from the 1860s until it closed in the mid-1930s. Kilderkin Distillery continues that proud tradition with a range of small-batch top-shelf gins and gin-based liqueurs and is soon to add a unique whisky to its range. With its cellar door re-opening this autumn, visitors can also purchase the Larrikin range direct from the distiller at the Ballarat Farmers’ Market on the second and fourth Saturdays of the month.
Relative new-comer, Dollar Bill Brewing, takes fresh pressed fruit, honey and wort from local producers before being fermented and aged in French oak barrels. These barrels are then skilfully blended to create Belgian-inspired ales, ciders, mead and barrel-aged beers – all available at Campana’s Stockade Cellars, Eclectic Tastes Café and Pantry and Drive Café.
Focus on local produce – paddock to plate
Certainly the culinary capital of regional Victoria, Ballarat’s dining options range from cute cafés and casual eateries, to pub grub and wine bars, to grand dining in heritage buildings. What links all these foodie finds is a focus on fresh produce and a pride in local producers.
Shared Table – Meet the Makers
March 12 and March 17
The menu at The Shared Table, Buninyong, epitomises this outlook, cooking only what is fresh, available and at its best, to serve dishes that marry Asian and Northern European flavours. The venue also hosts a ‘Meet the Makers’ events series, introducing diners to both products and the people behind them over a three-course lunch or dinner. Events on March 12 and March 17 will feature Black Cat Truffles, Mushroom Connection, Western Plains Pork, Bended Knee Winery and Millbrook Eggs.
High Tea Mistress Easter Truffle Experiences
April 14 to April 19
Truffle-lovers can also indulge their tastebuds at the Black Cat truffiere itself. Over the Easter period, High Tea Mistress is offering truffle-themed high tea experiences (salted truffle dark chocolate brownie, anyone?) in private igloos overlooking the scenic Wattle Flat truffiere itself. There is even an option for guests to go on a truffle hunt themselves.
Those people preferring the great indoors, can enjoy a side serve of history at The Provincial Hotel and Restaurant Lola which offers all-day dining from breakfast to late supper in the sublimely elegant surrounds of this historic boutique hotel.
For the ultimate in intimate dining, Ballarat’s Underbar seats just 16 fortunate foodies and opens on Friday and Saturday nights only. Head chef Derek Boath (formerly of New York’s three-Michelin starred Per Se) is delighting diners with a tasting menu that changes weekly and showcases the very best of Ballarat’s local farms and gourmet producers.
Visitors can go straight to the source with a visit to Tuki Trout Farm, open all day for trout fishing, or a restaurant lunch. Also on site at Smeaton, Tuki Retreat offers a romantic getaway for couples with the stone cottages, open fires and corner spas in the bathroom.
Stimulating activities for brisker temperatures
The stimulating cooler autumn months are the perfect time to gather indoors and develop new skills, or discover hidden talents, through workshops or a masterclass.
With its experienced apiarists and registered beekeepers, Backyard Beekeeping Ballarat offers workshops on honey tasting and appreciation, candle making and open hive experiences.
The huge – and hugely popular – brewpub, Aunty Jacks, has education as part of its mission and hosts Beer School information sessions every Sunday in addition to one-day Brew For a Day beer courses where students produce 1000 litres of wort and start the fermentation process for later kegging.
Complementing its coveted range of quality indoor plants, pots and homewares, The Green House Ballarat also offer fabulous workshops featuring talented Ballarat locals, including Kokedama making, ceramics, macrame, terrariums and indoor plant care workshops. Local artist, illustrator and graphic designer, Kelsie White, also leads watercolour classes at this venue.
Sylvia Nevistic is a Ballarat artisan with over 20 years’ experience creating finely crafted jewellery and objects honouring mother nature, poetry and the historical decorative arts. She also hosts regular jewellery workshops to teach beginners traditional, age-old techniques to design and forge unique well-crafted pieces that will last generations.
Ballarat Ceramic Heart Masterclass Series
March 19 and 26, April 23, May 21
Designed for the interested ceramicist, practising artist, as well as the casual observer, this ceramics Masterclass Series offers the opportunity to watch, listen and learn from deeply skilled local practitioners.
Each Masterclass is a full-day experience based in the Ceramic Studio of Federation University’s SMB Campus.
Ballarat Heritage Festival
20 to 29 May 2022
With Ballarat’s stunning Victorian architecture as its backdrop, the Ballarat Heritage Festival has built on its history of family-friendly events to offer ten days of fun-filled activities that salute the past, celebrate the present and look to the future. Festival highlights include the Ballarat Tweed Ride , Craft Lab 22, and the ever-growing Beard and Stache Competition. Details of other events will be announced in coming weeks.
Places to stay
The Provincial Hotel Ballarat – luxury, boutique accommodation in a 1909 iconic building recognised by the National Trust
Battista – self-contained spacious accommodation for two in an historic setting with modern conveniences
Craig’s Royal Hotel – The legendary 41-room gold-rush era grand hotel has hosted poets, princes and prime ministers over its 160-year history.
Lyon House – three-bedroom accommodation in an arts and crafts style home with 14-seat dining table, three opulent bathrooms, library, and indoor heated pool.