page_title: University of Ballarat
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: University of Ballarat / History
caption_attribution_description: Portrait of Redmond Barry, Australian jurist
context_page_description: The University of Ballarat, or Ballarat University, Australia was a dual-sector university with multiple campuses in Victoria, Australia, including its main Ballarat campus, Melbourne, Sydney, and Adelaide that were authorized by the University to provide diploma, undergraduate and postgraduate programs. The university offered traditional programs, including business, information technology, building and construction, engineering, mining, education, social sciences, nursing, hospitality, and art.
  The University of Ballarat's history goes back to the gold rush era of the 1850s. It began as a tertiary school in 1870. In 1970, Founders Theatre was built at the St Helen campus after an appeal was made to commemorate the opening of the school 100 years earlier. The theatre opened in 1981.
  The University of Ballarat was formed from a number of varying types of schools. The earliest was the School of Mines in 1870, which subsequently merged with other related organizations. Another was through Ballarat Base Hospital School of Nursing.
caption: Sir Redmond Barry, the first president of the School of Mines, a colonial judge in Victoria, and the inaugural Chancellor of the University of Melbourne
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