Looking around town now, and the broader district, it's easy to see why.

Major infrastructure projects, including the $518 million Ballarat Line Upgrade and dozens of wind turbines, were completed, which sets up the foundation for even more work in the future.

Right in the middle of town, the state government's GovHub project is rising out of a gigantic pit on Mair Street, promising to house a thousand jobs when it is completed - that's expected to be sometime in 2020 according to Development Victoria.

There's also a number of smaller projects that were finished this year, or are now on the drawing board for 2020 - council parks and playgrounds, a new multi-million dollar medical centre for the Ballarat and District Aboriginal Co-operative, and the cavernous Ballarat Sports and Events Centre, a $24 million new home for basketball, netball, and other sports.

Millions are being spent to get the CBD ready for the influx of jobs from the GovHub project, and there's been major upgrades to Mair Street and Sturt Street to help with the extra traffic.

It's not just the inner-city - Ballarat has been spreading outwards for years, and the city's road network is straining to keep up.

The $58 million election promise from the state government last year will lead to several improved intersections, including in Delacombe, which this year has seen a remarkable transformation.

The Smythes Creek neighbourhood, home to the Delacombe Town Centre, is completely unrecognisable from just a few years ago, as retailers and businesses move in to support the thousands of new homes.

One of the biggest Bunnings Warehouse facilities "in the southern hemisphere" opened this year, and there'll be several other big-box retailers opening soon.

Right in the middle is a roundabout, which will soon be replaced with traffic lights, making the entire area safer.

Further afield, more than 200 wind turbines are either up and spinning or about to be at three major wind farms around town.

The northern part of the 60-turbine Lal Lal wind farm is complete, visible from the train line around Millbrook, while the southern sector around Elaine is almost finished.

Out of the 107 turbines going in at the Moorabool wind farm, slightly to the east, there are 31 towers already up in the northern section, while 54 foundations are finished in the southern section.

Stockyard Hill's 149 turbines are well under way between Skipton and Beaufort, and 41 have already been built.

But it's the billion-dollar Golden Plains wind farm to keep an eye on - in January, the 228-turbine proposal around Rokewood received state government approval.

This will completely transform that part of the world - these towers could be as tall as 230 metres at their highest.

A Supreme Court case against the state Planning Minister to protect local wildlife is under way, but in August the project received federal environmental approvals.

If built, the project could supply the equivalent to "one-third of Hazelwood", project director Tobi Geiger said in August.

Local advocates are keen to capitalise on the project as well, with discussion around a renewable energy training facility continuing - Federation University ran a pilot program this year to train up wind farm technicians in Ballarat, who'll be able to find jobs taking care of the hundreds of turbines in the future.

Rail infrastructure into the future has also been a focus this year.

The Ballarat Line Upgrade project featured rebuilt stations, 18 kilometres of track duplication east of Melton, and passing loops at Millbrook and Ballan.

Wendouree, Ballan and Bacchus Marsh stations all got second platforms and accessible flyover bridges, and there's new stations for the growing suburbs near Melton.

These upgrades will mean more reliable and potentially faster services to and from Melbourne, with the state government promising trains every 40 minutes off-peak.

The state government said in a press release more than 45,000 rail sleepers and 135,000 tonnes of crushed work was used in the project.

There'll still be another shut down in the new year to "finalise completion", while the extra Ballarat services will begin once the station platforms and tracks are commissioned and driver training and safety testing is finished.

But now that this major project is finished, it's what happens next that's crucial.

Extra tracks will be needed - quadruplicating and electrifying the line between Melton and Sunshine would improve Ballarat services even more.

Rail advocates have spent much of the year lobbying state and federal governments to commit to building a rail tunnel for the planned Melbourne Airport Rail Link between Sunshine and Southern Cross Station to allow more regional trains to run, and the state government has committed $100 million over four years to the Western Rail Plan, investigating ways to improve services as the population continues to increase.

Back home in Ballarat, the train station precinct near Nolan Street is unrecognisable - a hotel has sprung up and the roof is off the Goods Shed - while Her Majesty's Theatre had its triumphant reopening, as did the venerable Civic Hall, with a banquet and ball in March.

The council is continuing to lobby for funding to expand the Ballarat airport and lengthen its runway, with the hope of creating an emergency services hub and supporting businesses beginning to move into the Ballarat West Employment Zone.

There are many more projects, large and small, that have been finished off this year - for example, Ballarat's state-of-the-art new hospice care unit was opened in October, and a new school is set to open in Lucas - and several we're still waiting for, like the $461 million hospital upgrade and the near-mythical 1000 new free car parks, among others.

The interesting part is watching how this almost 182-year-old city changes and grows.

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