Part of Elsworth Street in Mt Pleasant will be closed to traffic until at least Monday after a sinkhole opened up in the westbound lanes.
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Road crews were called in about 2.30pm when a resident reported a football-sized hole in the bitumen.
On arrival they found what is believed to be a goldrush-era ventilation shaft that would have delivered fresh air to a deeper horizontal mineshaft up to 100m below ground.
City of Ballarat maintenance supervisor Tony Slater said the shaft was capped about 4m below the road surface but it appeared water had leaked around the side of the cap and dissolved the earth in to the shaft.
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Cars had been seen driving over the hole before workers blocked the road.
Crews further excavated the hole to prepare it to be capped with concrete on Friday, which will need to be left to cure until at least Monday when the road will be reinstated.
Local residents will still be able to access their homes.
“We usually get one about every two years or so. They’re not so common now, but during the dry period a few years ago a fair few seemed to open up,” Mr Slater said.
