The Ballarat Cup, the Ballarat Show and Springfest were the staples of the month that always ensure it is a busy month – but then then throw in our shock Melbourne Cup victory and the ever growing Halloween and November just took off.

At The Courier, we have compiled a list of our most popular events and news stories as you saw it and have given you a chance to look back on the month that was.

The Ballarat Cup has just taken off since it became a Saturday meet and how the city has embraced it.

Our galleries from the day proved the most popular stories of the month by far, you can check them all out here.

This was arguably Ballarat’s greatest ever sporting moment.

When Michelle Payne rode rank outsider Prince of Penzance to victory in the Melbourne Cup, Ballarat erupted as one.

The welcome home parade for Michelle, her brother Stevie and trainer Darren Weir was a day to remember as the entire city came to a standstill. Check out our coverage here.

Springest seems to have a tradition of turning on what can only be described as dubious weather – but not this year.

More than 30,000 turned out in the last weekend of the month for the festival. Check out all of our photos here.

For years it seemed Australians tried to resist the American tradition but this year it absolutely took off in Ballarat!

We had more than 100 entries in our costume competition, which proved one of our most popular galleries for the year.

You can check them all out here.

The traditional event just seems to get bigger every year.

It seems Ballarat loved the show again this year and you also got a kick out of casting an eye over the show in years gone by.

This sad story shocked the Ballarat community when a 5-year-old girl was taken to hospital in a life-threatening condition after allegedly being stabbed on a Sunday in Mitchell Park.

She has since recovered, with 23-year-old Ty Ranger charged with attempted murder over the alleged incident.

Read more here.

This story had Ballarat on the edge of its seat as we covered it live over the space of a few hours.

With police surrounding a wanted man in a block of houses, the canine unit arrived from Melbourne and sniffed him out almost instantly.

We were there with all the action, which you can re-live here.

We farewelled our year 12s for the year as they celebrated the end of their school days in style.

Check out our gallery featuring great photos from graduation dinners across Ballarat here.