My first impression of Ballarat came in the mid 90’s playing a game of football at North Ballarat in the snow. I swore that day I would never return.

In 2013 I started a job that required me to do business in Ballarat almost every month over a five year period. I soon realised there was more to this town than the Arctic hell-hole I’d experienced previously.

Firstly the locals are friendly and down to earth. I think you find it’s the case anywhere where the harsher the climate corresponds with the welcoming nature of its constituents.

Not that Ballarat is cold all the time. In fact the past two days were glorious but July/August provides a unique chill indeed.

Secondly, Ballarat has the most expansive collection of restored colonial architecture in Australia. Yes there is Sovereign Hill which brings significant tourism and dollars to the local economy, but just walking around Ballarat is a feast for the eyes and imagination.

It’s for this reason the recent Ballarat International Foto Biennale, despite the Covid issues, has been another hugely successful step forward for the City of Ballarat.

The headline exhibit shown at the stunning Art Gallery of Ballarat is a Linda McCartney Retrospective. Linda, who passed away in 1998 was a career photographer in between being a musician and mother to four children.

Like Yoko Ono, she was reviled by jealous women around the world for stealing another Beatle away from them, but her focus was always on family and her extraordinary work behind the camera.

There are the obligatory photos of musicians, some of which ended up as album covers but it’s the images from their travels and from the family home in Scotland that blew me away.

Here you can see a regular family of grubby kids playing innocently, lots of animals and a very relaxed and happy Paul McCartney out of his rock star ‘bubble’.

This is a truly worthy centrepiece for the Biennale. Here are some images from the book I purchased as you can’t take photos in the exhibition.

Also for older readers, Linda took a photo of the great Norman Gunston from an infamous press conference during a Wings tour in 1975.  Paul and Linda were probably the only visitors to Australia who ‘got’ Norman. Here’s a clip from that momentous occasion.

We walked to half a dozen other exhibits and the other favourite was a Michael Gudinski exhibition held in the eerie basement of the Ballarat Mechanics Hall.

More like a setting for the prisoner scene in Life of Brian (“Nice one centurion, like it, like it. ”Shut up”. “Right yep”) this dungeon contained a multitude of images of artists that the late ‘Godfather of Aussie Music’ had signed at Mushroom Records or had brought out to tour Australia.

These are some of the images and as an added bonus in the basement, there were encryptions and old posters on the damp limestone walls from a bygone era to admire.

Our final destination was at the St Andrews Anglican Church and an installation called 24 Hours in photos. Using 350,000 printed photographs downloaded in a 24 hour period, artist Erik Kessels is ‘intending to visualise the feeling of drowning in representations of other’s experiences – depicting the sheer weight of our current visual output.’

It was hugely impactful and had us discussing the old days of taking film to the chemist for developing. We were always mindful not to waste a shot on the camera because of the expense involved as opposed to what it’s like now, especially with social media.

The church itself is sadly for sale but having been built in the 1850’s will remain heritage listed. I took the opportunity to check out the view from the pulpit.

Suddenly I felt a great epiphany and started belting out a series of my own commandments but only got to six before Lynda threw some holy water on me. They went something like:

  • Thou shall not kill….unless it’s Pell, Trump, Morrison or Putin, then go for your life.
  • Any AFL coach who instructs ‘flooding’ in a game will be fined $100,000. ‘One on One’ only.
  • Any billionaire prepared to fly a penis into space, must spend the equivalent feeding and housing a third world country.
  • Taylor, Carey, Brayshaw and McLachlan removed from AFL commentary and replaced by HG & Roy with Daisy Pearce in special comments.
  • All reality TV banned.
  • The SBS series, First Australians to be mandatory in every Australian High School.

That’s all I can remember. Certainly an enlightening experience. The Biennale finishes on January 9 and this is the link to the website.
https://ballaratfoto.org

Any trip to Ballarat has to include a walk around Lake Wendouree on the Steve Monaghetti Trail. 5.5km of glorious fauna and parkland and around the northern end, a couple of kilometres of the best real estate imaginable.

I’m just a renter, but if I won Tatts I wouldn’t hesitate to purchase something on this strip. They may be expensive but there’s no ostentatiousness. Tasteful and understated is the only way to describe them.

They range from Colonial to Victorian to Edwardian to Frank Lloyd Wright-inspired 60’s homes to ‘bomb-proof’-70’s and modern architect-designed gems. All of them immaculate.

Ballarat is rapidly leaving behind its reputation as a university town with a rugged Colonial history. The Arts community is thriving and in recent years we have made the trip to see Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds play in the Botanical Gardens and the Day of The Dead Festival.

If it’s helpful, I have always stayed at the Lake Inn. It’s always clean, great service and it’s attached to the City Oval Hotel for excellent food. It’s also two minutes walk from the beautiful Lake Wendouree.

Thanks again “The Rat’, and we look forward to seeing you again soon.