Locations: Ballarat

23 Oct

Visiting Ballarat is always a treat, I’ve visited regularly for nearly ten years and love the journey there, it’s easy on the train or also a very drivable distance from Melbourne. I’ve house sat there and commuted back and forth to Melbourne on the train daily - despite the small distance it feels different - It approaches real cold in the winter, being that it’s between four an six hundred metres higher above sea level than Melbourne . One of the attractions for many photographers in visiting Ballarat is the gold rush heritage which I certainly enjoy and provides rich pickings but the thing I enjoy the most is that there’s a real diversity of images which can be made there - I’ve added a substantial amount of work to my on going Edgelands project while exploring Ballarat.

One of the bonuses is that it’s much quicker to get around Ballarat than Melbourne. Even on foot getting to the strange part’s which lend themselves to my Edgelands work doesn’t take too long - not like taking a train to the end of a line in Melbourne. There has been a huge amount of change in many aspects of the city since I started visiting regularly - A quick check tells me that since 2003 there have been forty thousand people have moved there, taking the population from about eighty thousand to about one hundred and twenty.. That’s a massive change. It worries me that a quick check on a real estate site the first thing that came up was a one bedroom apartment for close to one million. It’s not as bad as other places, but it’s even more of an example how far behind Australia is when it comes to building apartments, this stuff is really on my mind lately as it’s impossible to escape the contstant talk about housing prices - and how miffed investors are about the prices falling, also how far behind the government is behind their housing construction targets for new homes. The lack of apartments, even in place like Ballarat and the resulting effect is a town which is very tied to cars and has far too large of an urban foot print for its size.

One of the great parts of Ballarat is the Ballarat International Photo Biennale, Australia’s premiere photography festival. It’s always a treat being able to get to so many shows and installations in a smaller city where I can do it all on foot. When the festival is on, the events are incredibly well done.

See my larger collection of Ballarat work

I’m looking forward to more regular visits to Ballarat again once my health improves.