LOOKING to navigate the nostalgic waters of the Ballarat Heritage Weekend, but don’t know where to start?
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Here are our top bets for a weekend of ultimate historical fun.
Like beards? Even better, do you sport a mantle of manliness yourself? Don’t miss the hotly contested title for the greatest beard in Ballarat at the Hop Temple, starting noon on Saturday, featuring categories such as the “Manscaped Majesty”. The People’s Choice award will be held at the Mining Exchange at 3.30m Saturday.
Get your goggles out, it’s time for a strange mash-up of the Victorian era and a post-apocalyptic nightmare. Suttons House of Music will host a Steampunk Evening on Saturday night, with music provided by the exceptional “gypsy dance continental classics” group The Royal High Jinx.
Starting at the Mining Exchange, check out a playable steampunk piano, mini theatres and a range of curios from “medical quacks and inventors”. Stop in at the Weirdos, Spooks and Cranks exhibition at the Old Post Office Building for even more strangeness.
And download the Ballarat Revealed app featuring the new Ghost Signs content for an even richer experience.
Nothing says ye-olde worlde like the magnificence of a steam engine. Steamrail Victoria will host a number of round trip locomotive journeys on the Y112, “Ballarat's own engine”. Trips leave Ballarat Railway Station at 9.30am, 10.55am, 1pm, 2.15pm and 3.45pm both days.
Dressed in dapper gentleman’s attire, hair slicked back with brylcreem and with a strange musical contraption strapped to his back, Uptown Brown is quite a sight. He’s also quite a sound – the talented jazz player revives music from the 1920s to 1950s with his homemade “Goodtimes Gyratorscope”. Uptown Brown will perform at the Mining Exhange Saturday and Sunday morning at 10.
If you’re of a sinister bent, you can’t miss this spooky and dark reimagining of Ballarat’s dark past. Storyteller supreme Anne E Stewart will tell the story of the Eureka ghost from 3.30pm on Sunday. She’s one of several bards telling tales, thanks to Child and Family Services’ program of remembering the past 150 years.
It’s a fact – folk just dressed snazzier in the old days. Find yourself a tweed suit or a rock n’ roll frock at St Patrick’s Hall from 9.30am to 5pm both days.
