page_title: Ballarat
section_title: Arts and culture
hierarchical_section_title: Ballarat / Arts and culture
caption_attribution_description: English: Ballarat Fine Art Gallery in 2010 after exterior facade restoration
context_page_description: Ballarat is a city in the Central Highlands of Victoria, Australia. In 2018, Ballarat had a population of 105,471, making it the third-largest city in both Victoria and inland Australia.
  Within months of Victoria separating from the colony of New South Wales in 1851, gold was discovered near Ballarat, sparking the Victorian gold rush. Ballarat subsequently became a thriving boomtown that for a time rivalled Melbourne, the capital of Victoria, in terms of wealth and cultural influence. In 1854, following a period of civil disobedience in Ballarat over gold licenses, local miners launched an armed uprising against government forces. Known as the Eureka Rebellion, it led to the introduction of male suffrage in Australia, and as such is interpreted as the origin of Australian democracy. The rebellion's symbol, the Eureka Flag, has become a national symbol and is held at Ballarat's Museum of Australian Democracy at Eureka.
  Proclaimed a city in 1871, Ballarat's prosperity, unlike that of many other gold boom towns, continued until the late 19th century, as the city's fields experienced sustained high gold yields for many decades.
context_section_description: The Ballarat Fine Art Gallery houses one of Australia's oldest and most extensive collections of early Australian works. It is considered to have the best Australian collection outside any capital city in Australia.
  Federation University Australia operates the Post Office Gallery in the Wardell designed former Post Office on the corner of Sturt and Lydiard Streets.
caption: Ballarat Fine Art Gallery, the oldest and largest art gallery in regional Australia
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