The society received a $2400 community impact grant from the City of Ballarat to install a hearing loop in its main hall, allowing the hearing impaired to enjoy its lectures.

The community impact grant is one of three currently available to Ballarat community groups and businesses to assist in running events and programs, along with the strategic partnership program and tourism events grant program.

Council has made $300,000 available to community groups through the community impact grants to run projects which promote sustainability, inclusiveness or community outcomes with the deadline for applications now extended until 5pm on September 5.

IN OTHER NEWS:

Ballaarat Astronomical Society manager Judith Bailey said the grants allowed the society to remain up-to-date with the latest technology.

"What these impact grants can do is to help bring in leading edge technology. We've had a number of grants over many years and each time we've bought something that's really upgraded our technology, mostly. Buildings, telescopes, the special projector for our 3D movies and whatnot," she said.

"We have a wonderful heritage observatory, it's one of the oldest in Australia, but astronomy is not something that sits in the past, it's a subject which is in the present and the future as well, so having that link to leading edge technology... it's very good."

Ms Bailey said many groups relied on grants to continue operating throughout the pandemic.

"There's a tremendous amount of people who work on a volunteer basis in the community in various ways, there's thousands of them, really. I think that these grants play a key role in helping the groups achieve their aims," she said.

Like many other community groups and businesses, the Ballaarat Astronomical Society saw a drastic reduction in income over the past 18 months.

Ms Bailey said the society had even resorted to raising prices to increase its income due to the pandemic.

"It's extraordinarily important because towards the end of last year, I realised that our income was going to be so low that I actually put prices up.

"It's critical for community groups and there's a lot of businesses who've fallen through the net, we're one of them, who have fallen through the nets provided by the federal and the state government and so I think these impact grants fill a very important gap."

For more information on the available grants, visit council's website.

Our team of local journalists work hard to provide local, up-to-date news to the Ballarat community. This is how you can continue to access our trusted content: