Sunday 12 September 2010

City stroll




I started off from the Mechanics Institute, after returning a bag of  books to the library there, at the bottom of Sturt Street





from the bandstand in the middle of the street I could see Minerva on the top of the Mechanics Institute on one side.






And this lovely piece on the opposite side at the entrance to Camp Street (all goldrush towns have a Camp Street where the soldiers and police set up)




Down from the bandstand and along the little path in the centre gardens









Past Queen Vicky and her fairy (yes I know it's really the goddess Victoria)






Past the nicely wrapped town hall





Around into Mair Street. Here's a remnant of the old School of Mines (one in every Victorian Goldrush Town once) which has taken over the Ballarat Brewery and the Ballarat prison and morphed into a university.





Not many milk bars left now - once they were on every second corner.




Then I walked around the newly flowering gardens in Mills and Frank Streets, just near the city centre.





These wide streets always feel good. Not too well-curbed and paved, with lots of room for people who like to walk.








And even around these neatly made-up houses you can come across a bit of informal loveliness.



3 comments:

Suzanna said...

What an interesting town/city...I especially like the statues of Queen Victoria and Minerva. We have a seated Minerva on our California State Seal...

Elizabeth said...

Hi Suzanna, I use this blog to (among other things!) try to bring together some things that make Ballarat so much itself and nowhere else. My home city, Melbourne, is so big and sprawling - I love being able to walk anywhere in Ballarat.
Do you think Minerva is a goldrush inheritance in California and here in Victoria - the metallurgy, the new sciences, the building of new cities in the wilderness?

Suzanna said...

You do have really nice sidewalks there...it's awfully nice to be able to roam about on foot. And regarding Minerva..Yes, the discovery of gold applies in both cases...it's also mentioned, in Wikipedia, that she sprang fully formed from the brain of Jupiter...which is likened to California becoming a state right away and not going through the in between condition of being a territory...coming into her own quite suddenly...