Ballarat  is a city in the state of Victoria, Australia, approximately 105 kilometres (65 mi) north-west of the state capital Melbourne. It is the largest inland centre and the third most populous city in the state. The estimated urban area population is 94,088. It is the administrative centre for the City of Ballarat, which encompasses both the urban area and outlying towns spanning an area of 740 square kilometres (290 sq mi). Inhabitants of Ballarat are known as Ballaratians.

It was named by Scottish settler Archibald Yuille who established the sheep run called Ballaarat in 1837 with the name derived from local Wathaurong Aboriginal words for the area, balla arat, thought to mean 'resting place'.

Ballarat is one of the most significant Victorian era boomtowns in Australia. Gold was discovered in Poverty Point on 21 August 1851 and the area of Ballarat was later found to be a rich alluvial field where gold could easily be extracted. News of the finds intensified the Victorian gold rush bringing over 10,000 migrants to the city from around the world within a year and transforming it from a station to a major settlement in the newly proclaimed Colony of Victoria. Australia's first gold stamp mill was established at Ballarat in 1854.

Ballarat was the site of the Eureka Rebellion, the only armed civil uprising in Australian history which took place on 3 December 1854 and an event controversially identified with the birth of democracy in Australia. Many significant Australian cultural icons are also a legacy of Ballarat's gold rush boom. The rebellion's symbol, the Eureka Flag has become a national symbol and is held at the Ballarat Fine Art Gallery, Australia's oldest and largest regional gallery. Other nationally significant heritage structures include the Ballarat Botanical Gardens, established 1857, the best example of a regional botanic gardens in Australia with the greatest concentration of public statuary including the official Prime Minister's Avenue; the longest running lyric theatre building, Her Majesty's, established 1875; the first municipal observatory, established 1886; and the earliest and longest memorial avenue, the Avenue of Honour, established between 1917 and 1919.

Ballarat's prosperity continued until late in the 19th Century, when its importance relative to both Melbourne and Geelong faded with the slowing of gold extraction. It has endured as a major regional centre hosting the rowing and kayaking events from the 1956 Summer Olympics. It is the commercial capital of the Central Highlands and the largest city in the Goldfields region of Victoria – a significant tourist destination. Ballarat is known for its history, culture and its well preserved Victorian era heritage.

On 21 August 1851, John Dunlop and James Regan struck gold at Poverty Point with a few ounces but within days of the announcement prospectors rushed the area. As the Victorian gold rush gathered pace, numerous alluvial and deep mining leads sprang up in the Ballarat district. The Ballarat goldfields had gained an international reputation as a rich goldfield and a huge influx of immigrants from around the world included many from Ireland and China gathering in a collection of prospecting shanty towns around the creeks and hills. Several other notable gold fields were established in the wider area including the Berringa, Clunes, Creswick, Talbot and Enfield but the Ballarat district was the most important settlement in the area and the colony's second largest settlement.

The first Post Office opened on 1 November 1851.[13] Parts of the district were first surveyed by William Urquhart as early as October 1851. By 1852 his grid plan and wide streets for land sales in the new township of West Ballarat contrasted markedly with the existing narrow unplanned streets, tents and gullies of the original East Ballarat settlement.

Battle of the Eureka Stockade. J. B. Henderson (1854) WatercolourCivil disobedience in Ballarat led to Australia's first and only armed civil uprising, the Eureka Rebellion (colloquially referred to as the Eureka Stockade) which took place in Ballarat on 3 December 1854. The event, in which 22 miners died, is considered to be a defining moment in Australian history.

The main street, Lydiard Street in 1857 looking west from the government camp. The post office, formerly situated on the southwest corner of Mair Street is on the rightDuring the 1860s Ballarat prospered on gold mining. Confidence of the city's early citizens in the enduring future of their city is evident in the sheer scale of many of the early public buildings, generous public recreational spaces, and opulence of many of its commercial establishments and private housing. The railway came to the town with the opening of the Geelong-Ballarat line in 1862, As Ballarat grew, the region's original indigenous inhabitants were quickly expelled to the fringe and by 1867 few at all remained.

1870s: A city emerges
Ballarat was proclaimed a city in 1871. During the period from the 1880s to the early 20th century Ballarat made a successful transition from a gold rush town to industrial age city. A direct railway to Melbourne was completed in December 1889. Many industries and workshops that had been established as a result of manufacturing and servicing for the deep lead mining industry.

The intersection of Lydiard and Sturt Street in 1899 was the heart of a bustling city of trams, horses and pedestrians.During 1901, the Duke of Cornwall and York, later King George V and Duchess journeyed by train on 13 May from Melbourne to Ballarat .

Ballarat lies at the foothills of the Great Dividing Range in Central Western Victoria. Also known as the Central Highlands, it is named so because of its gentle hills and lack of any significant mountains that are more common in the eastern sections of the Great Dividing Range. The city lies within a gently undulating section of the midland plains which stretch from Creswick in the north, to Rokewood in the south, and from Lal Lal in the south-east to Pittong in the west. These plains are made up of alluvial sediment and volcanic flows, and contain large areas of rich agricultural soils. A large feature of the city is the man-made Lake Wendouree (formerly Yuille’s Swamp), around which many of the inner suburbs are situated. The central city is situated low in the valley of the Yarrowee catchment and surrounded by hills and the skyline is visible only from the hills and the lower lying inner eastern suburbs.

There are numerous densely forested areas around Ballarat and large bodies of water including the White Swan Reservoir and other lakes, rivers and creeks which are used for urban water use and agriculture.

There are still thought to be large, undiscovered gold reserves around the Ballarat region, with investigations being made by local and national companies to extract potentially as much gold as the Gold Rush days in the mid 1800s.

Settlement patterns around Ballarat consist of small villages and country towns, some with less than a few thousand people.