Ballarat - begonia and historic buildings

We had planned to drive up to two viewpoints in The Grampians this Monday morning ,,, but,,, when we started our car it went crazy saying "low tire pressure" in many ways and indicating in a pictograph the left front tire lacking air. Drove to the only gas station in the village and tried to fill up air, but with no success. Pressure didn't change. Not sure whether the pump was working correctly (a guy before us had his doubts,, too), and therefore we decided not to risk to be stranded up on a viewpoint with a flat tire. Drove to the next town to pump it up, but nothing changed, again. Not sure what it was, we drove straight to Ballarat (about 1.5 hours), where a Europcar station was located and - though announced as "open" on the website, it was closed because of the holiday. Neighboring other car rental companies were open. Pumped once more, but unchanging.

Well, a bit annoyed, we drove to the Ballarat Botanical Garden. It was around noon and became hot. When we got closer: crowds, cars parked everywhere, and, we were wondering, what's going on? Ballarat Begonia Festival! The whole area with the Botanical Garden, the Tram Museum (photo below) and the Lake were packed with vendors of all kinds, food vendors, displays, stages, lectures and cooking presentation took place, organisations informed, there were kid's areas, and much more. This morning a big parade had taken place and the conservatory (photo further below) featured the highlight of the gardens: a fantastic begonia display. We bought some heirloom seeds, admired the huge trees and flower beds, the dahlia collection and the rose garden, spotted flying-foxes in the trees, walked around the lake with its black swans, ate a hotdog, listened to some music and enjoyed the green and the sun. 

 

Around 3 pm we drove into downtown, and, again a nice surprise: Plenty of historic buildings from the boom times of the city.  In July/August 1851, gold was discovered in the area and near Golden Point, where the Sovereign Hill Historical Park is located now. A product of the gold rushes, by 1871 Ballarat boasted a population of almost 50,000 and fantastic buildings came up. One of the reasons why so much of the city’s built heritage survived is that with the closure of all its mines by 1918 a deep slummer followed. 

 

Ballarat’s Sovereign Hill Historical Park (pics below), opened in 1970, a living museum presenting the story of Ballarat as a gold rush boomtown.We are staying in the adjacent hotel on vast green grounds. Enjoyed the evening sitting outside the building and watching the different parrots and listening to the chatty kookaburras.

 

BTW: So far, there is still air in the tire.