Ballarat is a city of about 94,000 inhabitants in the state of Victoria in Australia , 120 kilometers west-northwest of Melbourne . It is the third largest city in the state and one of the largest offshore cities in Australia. The city is the center of the Local Government Area Ballarat City . The name Ballarat is derived from the Aboriginal expression for "resting place".
The place had a significant influence on the economic development of the state of Victoria and was a center of the Victorian gold rush in the middle of the 19th century . The introduction of a compulsory license for prospectors led to the Eureka Stockade uprising on December 3, 1854 , during which 22 prospectors were shot. The leaders were brought to justice and acquitted, and the controversial license was abolished.
In 1858 the third largest Australian gold nugget was found in Ballarat , the 62.85 kilogram Welcome Nugget . The village had about 40,000 inhabitants at that time. Today a completely reconstructed gold rush town called Sovereign Hill , where amateur actors delight the visitors, reminds of this. On January 16, 2013, a hobby gold prospector discovered a gold nugget weighing a good 5 kilograms with the help of a modern metal detector.
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