Ballarat Tramway Museum
Ballarat Tramway museum.
A Hidden treasure of Ballarat
It’s amazing you can live in a town, wander regularly around the lake but still miss this little Gem. The tramway museum located alongside Ballarat’s Botanical gardens.
The tram depot at the Southern End of the Lake is home to a fascinating museum full of research collections, photographs, interactive displays, and trams. The museum is free to enter and manned by volunteers, however if you appreciate all the hard work and time they put into it their is a place to put a gold coin donation.
Whilst looking around the museum it is very interactive. You can get on and off most of the trams and take a photo in the drivers seat. As it is manned by volunteers it’s hours are a little sporadic as their focus is to have the Trams running along the lake first.
Our favorite tram to see was the Horse Tram No. 1 which was built back in 1887, and restored over a five year period between 1987 – 1992.
In the main tram you will be surprised to see the amount of detail, and information you can find. It has a great area for younger children to play with a trainset to give you time to read all about the history of the trams. A cute little shop full of tram and transport related memorabilia.
Take a ride in history
If you want an even more excitement, In the school holidays and on the weekends the historic trams run along a 1.3km section of rail alongside Lake Wendouree, each afternoon. These authentic Ballarat trams were Ballarat’s main public transport up until the 70’s and some are over 100 years old.
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