Warrnambool to Ballarat: Pies, Art and Gardens

Breakfast in Warrnambool

Before leaving Warrnambool, one more bakery: Browns Depot Bakery, for pies and coffee. By now, we’d become pie experts.

A quiet street in Warrnambool in the morning — Morning, Warrnambool

Trays of pies and pasties — Morning, Warrnambool

Inland

Then we left the coast behind and drove north-east, just under three hours through farmland. Huge open paddocks, big skies, and every now and then the green cone of an old volcano rising out of the flat land.

An old volcanic hill rising from the farmland — Volcano country

Our selfie at a roadside stop — Volcano country

Ballarat

Ballarat is a gold rush city. In the 1850s, gold was found here, people poured in from all over the world, and the town got rich fast. You can see the money in the buildings: Lydiard Street is lined with grand Victorian hotels, banks and theatres, with iron lace verandas.

The grand old buildings on Lydiard Street — Lydiard Street

A laneway hung with blue and white umbrellas — Lydiard Street

We had lunch at a café in one of the old shopfronts: cake first, then a sandwich.

After lunch, a walk around town: the Town Hall with its clock tower, more grand streets, and the Art Gallery of Ballarat, Australia’s oldest regional gallery, in a beautiful old building with a sweeping staircase and walls covered in paintings.

The old shopfronts on Lydiard Street — Town Hall

The Botanical Gardens

Then the Ballarat Botanical Gardens, on the shore of Lake Wendouree. It’s full of marble statues, huge old trees in autumn colours, and the Robert Clark Conservatory, a glass house packed with flowers.