Ballarat Heritage Festival

16 – 25 May 2025

Heritage Unfolds. Entertainment Awaits.

Step back in time and embrace the magic of entertainment at this year’s Ballarat Heritage Festival. 
This vibrant celebration honours our city’s rich past while embracing its ever-evolving future.  
Discover the stories, the spectacle, and the spirit of a proud and historic town that continues to inspire in an imaginative way.
The festival will continue to offer a diverse and creative program, highlighting both the city's fascinating past and its exciting future.
 
Category
‘Theatre Royal, Ballarat’ photograph: gelatin silver ; 20.3 x 25.3 cm, State Library of Victoria, Accession No : H31284

Theatre Royal Playbills 1858-1877

Saturday March 08 - Sunday August 17, 2025
10.00am - 5.00pm Daily

An exhibition of rare playbills collection from the Theatre Royal, a grand gold rush era theatre that operated in Ballarat from 1858 to 1877.

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‘I Have Been Here Before’ (promotional leaflet), The Ballarat Branch, National Theatre Movement, Waller & Chester Printers, Ballarat, 1948. Ballarat Libraries Collection.

From the Collection: Performing Arts

Monday March 31 - Thursday October 02, 2025
10.00am - 4.03pm Monday-Thursday

This display highlights books and ephemera from the Ballarat Libraries collection that capture the rich history of the performing arts in Ballarat from the gold rush to more recent times.

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Deans Marsh Country Women's Association, ‘Curtain - Deans Marsh’ 1939-1948 (detail), hessian bags: embroidered, sewn together and backed, Museums Victoria Collections, SH 920880

Curtains Up: Preserving Theatrical Material and Community Heritage

Saturday May 17, 2025
2.00pm

Museums Victoria’s Deborah Tout-Smith leads a panel discussion about the interpretation and preservation of theatre curtains and backdrops of heritage significance that originate from various locations across regional Victoria.

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Ballarat Post Office (detail) c1917-1930, silver gelatin photograph, 16.5 x 21.9cm, State Library of Victoria, Accession no: H89.105/13.

Ballarat Architecture: From the National Archives of Australia

Tuesday May 20, 2025
1.00pm

Join Alison Lettin from the National Archives of Australia as she delves into their records to present architectural drawings from Ballarat’s colonial era.

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Christine in her shearing shed outside Clunes. The farm has been owned and maintained by women since 1868 following the goldfields success of her great-grandfather Alexander’s training as a geologist in Scotland. Christine features in Ilana Rose and Tim Webster’s Voices of the Goldfields project created on behalf of the Goldfields World Heritage Bid.

Voices of the Goldfields: Your Stories

Wednesday May 21, 2025
1.00pm

A screening of the short film ‘Voices of the Goldfields’ and discussion about the Victorian Goldfields World Heritage Bid. 

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Say Who You Are. By Keith Waterhouse and Willis Hall. Directed by Julian Oldfield. Ballarat National Theatre, Courthouse Theatre, Ballarat, 2003

Centre Stage: The Making of Ballarat’s Theatre Culture

Thursday May 22, 2025
6.00pm

Join us for a panel discussion chaired by creative leader and theatre maker, Bryce Ives, exploring Ballarat’s community theatre and theatre education history from the beginning of the 20th century to today. 

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Three participants on stage at a Public Program at Eureka Centre Ballarat

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