Where to find Ballarat’s best parks and gardens

With Victoria long known as Australia’s ‘Garden State’, Ballarat plays a big role in this claim to fame thanks to our exquisite collection of parks and gardens.

Here’s our top picks for the city’s most beautiful green spaces:

Ballarat Botanical Gardens

Wendouree Parade, Lake Wendouree

Why we love it:

• One of Australia’s most significant cool climate gardens.
• Covers 40 hectares and is divided into four distinct zones.
• Features a remarkable collection of mature trees and marble statues set amongst colourful bedding displays.
• Home of the Ballarat Begonia Festival, Robert Clark Conservatory and the Prime Ministers Avenue of bronze busts mounted on polished granite pedestals.

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Buninyong Botanic Gardens

Corner of Scott and Inglis streets, Buninyong

Why we love it:

• Established in the 1860s, Buninyong Botanic Gardens was designed by Melbourne’s Royal Botanic Gardens director Baron Ferdinand von Mueller.
• The heritage-listed gardens are among the oldest in Victoria.
• Its upper garden area is home to The Gong reservoir, along with many fish and waterbirds.
• Facilities include playground equipment, electric barbecues and toilets.

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North Gardens

Wendouree Parade, Lake Wendouree

Why we love it:

• The North Gardens Indigenous Sculpture Park is a significant project for the City of Ballarat and will feature works by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander artists, celebrating the richness and diversity of culture and telling important cultural stories.
  
  Murrup Laarr – ‘Ancestral Stones’ in Wadawurrung – was the first artwork installed in the park in early 2019.
  
  Created by Deanne Gilson, the contemporary artwork consists of a traditionally-built stone hut in the middle of a circle of basalt standing stones, marked with ceramic plates. It reflects the stories and symbols of dreaming, memory, ceremony.
• Also home of the Ballarat Farmers Market, plus festivals and special events.
• A zoo was located in North Gardens between 1917 and 1959, with remnants of the animal enclosures still visible at the north end of Nursery Drive and Zoo Drive.

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Sturt Street Gardens

Sturt Street, Ballarat

Why we love it:

• Cared for by the City of Ballarat’s parks and gardens team, these formal gardens stretch for 13 blocks up the middle of Sturt Street, from Grenville Street to Pleasant Street.
• Heritage features include significant statues, bandstands, memorials and trees.
• It boasts a new shared bicycle and pedestrian path.

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Victoria Park

Newington

Why we love it:

• Once extensively mined for gold, Victoria Park is one of Ballarat’s most significant parks.
• On 23 May 1890, local residents helped plant more than 3000 trees at the site to celebrate Victoria’s first Arbor Day. This provided the foundation for one of the best examples of a large European-style parkland in Australia.
• Today, 130 hectares of parklands are separated by gently curving tree-lined avenues.
• Home to the Inclusive Play Space, which features multiple play zones and accessible equipment designed for people with all abilities.

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Eureka Stockade Memorial Park

Stawell Street South, Ballarat

Why we love it:

• Named on the National Heritage List as it’s considered to be the site of the Eureka Stockade rebellion on 3 December 1854.
• Many layers of Eureka commemoration are reflected throughout the park in its significant trees, interpretive plaques and monuments that honour those involved in the Eureka Stockade.
• The park is also home to the Eureka Centre, which explores the social history and cultural impact of the Victorian gold rush. 

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Black Hill Reserve

Chisholm Street, Black Hill

Why we love it:

• After gold was discovered at Black Hill Reserve in 1851, the Black Hill Quartz Crushing Company began shallow alluvial and open cut mining at the site. Mining continued at the site until the 1920s.
• Black Hill lookout boasts sweeping views of Ballarat and the surrounding district to the south.
• The reserve has become a focal point for downhill mountain bike riding in Ballarat, with six cross country trails, four downhill trails, two pump tracks, a skills area and advanced jump park. 

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Woowookarung Regional Park

York St, Ballarat East/Recreation Road, Mount Clear

Why we love it:

• A 641-hectare park, Woowookarung Regional Park – ‘place of plenty’ – is part of the traditional lands of the Wadawurrung people.
• Established in 2016, the park is perfect for bushwalking, trail running and cycling among the messmate stringybark, grass trees and native heath.
• Keep an eye out for kangaroos, echidnas, birds and native wildflowers.
• Home of Australia’s first Dementia-friendly Forest and Sensory Trail. 

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Gong Gong Reservoir/Kirks Reservoir

Daylesford Road, Gong Gong

Why we love it:

• Kirks Reservoir is a European-style manicured park with BBQs, picnic facilities and toilets.
• In 1862, the government acquired Kirks Reservoir for 4000 pounds and it became the home of Ballarat’s first water supply scheme.
• Gong Gong Reservoir‘s Catchment Habitat and Water Trail is a valuable collection of native plants and geological along the Yarrowee River.
• The reservoirs are located opposite each other on Daylesford Road and are just a 10-minute drive from the Ballarat CBD.

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