When I drove
into Ballan and saw the ‘Watch for Koalas’ sign in the middle of a residential
neighbourhood, I knew I was going to like the place. Anyone who looks after
these furry little Australian icons gets a pat on the back from me. However, it
should be noted early on, that despite looking in every tree I passed, I never
spotted a single koala myself.
My visit to
this little town, 78 kilometres northwest of Melbourne, was a fleeting one –
but not quite as fleeting as the first time I discovered it on a trip to
Geelong a year before. I had liked the look of the place then, as I flashed
through on my way south, but I didn’t have time to stop. And I was reluctant to
visit during the searing hot summer because I had to drive through several
forested areas to get there and I was apprehensive about bush fires.
As a footnote
to that paragraph, many of the farmers in the area are descendants of members
of the Australian Defence Forces, who settled their families in the wider
Ballarat district after the war.
I probably
could have walked around the whole of the township in an hour or so but I chose
to drive – after all, I had gauged fairly quickly that unless you had chosen to
live there, Ballan wasn’t the sort of place that commanded a lingering visit.
That said, it does have a clutch of wonderful old buildings and ‘wonderful old
buildings’ always set my imagination to wondering about life in the early days
– who lived there and why? How much they had paid to build their handsome
dwelling, who lived in it now? Where did they work? Were they one of the
hundreds who now commute to Melbourne by train to work every day?
Located near
the Werribee River (I never even saw that!), Ballan was established in the
1830s when one Robert von Steiglitz settled in the area. He named the new town
that sprang up in 1838, after Ballan in Ireland. Gold was discovered in 1851
and the town’s population more than doubled in the years thereafter. The Ballan
Hotel in fact, dates back to that gold rush era.
The first
Mechanics Institute was built in 1861 but the current building sits on land
that was purchased in 1881 and the building, complete with a new 1922 façade,
now houses a hall and library.
It seems
though, that Ballan is a town large enough to have an industrial estate, AND a
uniformed meter reader. And judging by the posters around town advertising
groups and classes, a lot DOES go on here – from quilting groups and assorted
other stitchery to fitness groups, community luncheons, baby groups, floral
arranging (single session $50), Hatha yoga, art classes, high teas and belly
dancing classes.
For all its
quietness, there was something about Ballan that appealed to me – some
intangible that ‘dwelt’ in the wide, tree-lined streets, the pretty old houses,
the quaint old public buildings and the smiling residents – the few I saw at
least. I might not choose to live there at this particular point in my life,
but I would certainly visit again.
