Ballarat

Here’s a little history lesson. Melbourne was founded in the 1830s. In the early 1850s, little nuggets of gold brought a boom to the area, quadrupling the population of Melbourne in a short period of time. Ballarat was one of the predominant mining towns responsible for that boom and influx of population. Melbourne actually became the largest city in Australia, housed Parliament temporarily, and was the center of arts and commerce for Australia, until the gold rush fizzled out. In the early 1900s, Sydney surpassed Melbourne as the largest city, and in the 1910s or 1920s, the seat of the Australian government moved to the planned capital of Canberra. More recently, Sydney also surpassed Melbourne as the financial capital of the country. But Melbourne has retained pre-eminence in culture and arts, sport, and multiculturalism. Today, of the approximately 21 million people who live in Australia, about 4.1 million live in Sydney and its suburbs, and about 3.8 million live in Melbourne and its suburbs. End of lesson.

Ballarat still exists, a little town about a two-hour drive from Melbourne’s CBD, and I had the pleasure of going, though not for pleasure, so I didn’t see the old mines. What I did get a chance to see, however, was my first taste of the land beyond the city. I learned in a documentary that Australia has a huge fence that runs from part of South Australia through part of New South Wales (the state where Sydney is located) to keep dingos (read: wild dogs introduced unnaturally by settlers) away from the herds of sheep in the southeast, including Victoria (the state where Melbourne is located). That meant I could see sheep grazing along the way. Interestingly, the trip also meant I got my first chance to see a kangaroo crossing sign, though I was not fortunate enough to see the ‘roos themselves.

The drive along the Western Highway was relatively hilly. The grass was green, but a very different green than I encountered in Ireland. It isn’t as vibrant as the greens there, but was a little more yellow. That may have been because there wasn’t as much rain as usual, but I heard there were two weeks of nearly nonstop rain before I came.



The clouds move quickly around the state, and on our trip, they seemed to hang low in the sky. Larger hills loomed in the background. As we approached some hills closer to the city, you could see sheep milling about, up and down the hills.

The setup of the population centers reminds me of a thought I had when passing through Canada. In the US, drive along a highway, and you will often see sparse population all along the highways (keep in mind that I travel on US highways more in the east than the west). In Canada, it’s more the roads are the only connection between hubs of population. You don’t see many little towns along the way. The drive I had in Victoria was about the same way.

Now, I’m pointing out the differences, but the conversation I had with an Aussie I work with was a little more revealing. What is strange about being here is how similar things are to home. It’s almost like going to another major city I just hadn’t been to before. What is weird is what is not weird. And it’s funny, because I keep trying to be culturally sensitive, and use words I am picking up that they use. But, as one person said, “Just talk normal and we’ll understand it. We all watch American movies here.”