The Tramway Museum
At the edge of the Botanical Gardens is the Ballarat Tramway Museum. Ballarat used to have trams all over the city, and a group of volunteers keeps a few of the old ones running on a short line along Lake Wendouree.
We bought tickets, and an old green and cream tram rattled up to collect us.
The ride is slow and clanky, with wooden seats and open windows, past the gardens and along the lake.
Back at the depot, there’s a shed full of old trams you can climb into: trams from Ballarat, Bendigo and Melbourne, some over a hundred years old.
Outside, Lake Wendouree was calm and glassy under the clouds.
The Ballarat Observatory
In the late afternoon, we drove up to the Ballarat Observatory, a little red brick observatory with a domed roof on a hill. Inside are the old telescopes, including a giant white one that looks like a cannon.
Once it got dark, we went outside to look at the stars.
Dinner in town: pasta, and more pasta.
Tomorrow: a whole day back in the gold rush at Sovereign Hill.
Information About the Ballarat Tramway Museum
Volunteers run Ballarat's old trams along the edge of Lake Wendouree, and the depot is a small museum full of trams from Ballarat, Bendigo and Melbourne that you can climb into.
PS: The trams run on weekends and public holidays, so check the timetable before you go.