The Reading Room (2pm in the Library for a start @ 10.30am – 12noon)
APRIL SESSION
A Tale of Two Cities | Charles Dickens
After eighteen years as a political prisoner in the Bastille, the ageing Doctor Manette is finally released and reunited with his daughter in England. There the lives of two very different men, Charles Darnay, an exiled French aristocrat, and Sydney Carton, a disreputable but brilliant English lawyer, become enmeshed through their love for Lucie Manette. From the tranquil lanes of London, they are drawn against their will to the vengeful, bloodstained streets of Paris at the height of the Reign of Terror, and they soon fall under the lethal shadow of La Guillotine.
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This event is a BMI Community Art Project – Ballarat’s Oldest Cultural Institution
Dickie Larsen’s Pumpkin and other stories Geoff Carr The 2026 Twilight Talks event proudly sponsored by Community Bank Buninyong and Bendigo Bank. Don’t miss Geoff at the BMI on Wednesday 29 April at 5.30pm Spike is a young boy in 1950s Australia, surrounded by sprawling landscapes and a menagerie of animals. Together with his friends
This May, the rarely seen basement vaults beneath the Ballaarat Mechanics’ Institute will open to the public through Lantern Vaults, a new immersive experience by Ballarat artist Amanda Western.
Welcome to another jam packed Newsletter! I hope some of you have been able to attend the first couple of Twilight Talks for the year on April 15 featuring Hedley Thomson and April 22nd with Amethyst May & Gary Snowden as a duo. These events were very well attended, thanks to our speakers for entertaining
When lemons give you life Anna Johnston Don’t miss Anna at the BMI on Thursday 30 April at 6.30pm Redemption is a dish best served warm… Retired Michelin-star chef Griff Barlow has lost his appetite for life. Widowed, grieving and living in an aged care facility where beige slop passes for food, Griff is done
A message from the President Support the Ballaarat Mechanics’ Institute in 2026 Dear Ballaarat Mechanics’ Institute supporter, In the early days of the gold rush, Ballarat was a place of extraordinary ambition. Among the diggers and merchants who built the town was a group of citizens who believed that knowledge mattered just as much as
The Drowning Fiona Lowe Don’t miss Fiona at the BMI on Tuesday 21 April at 6pm A body on the beach. An inheritance. A family pulled apart. CC Cilento’s best memories are of spending every summer holiday running wild in and out of the Friend family beach house with her cousins, James, Ollie, Felix and
Minerva's Secrets Night Tours
Fri 24 Apr – Tue 19 May
& Fri 12 Jun
Tour 1 at 7pm – Tour 2 at 9pm.
Linen & Lace Exhbition
Includes Devonshire Tea | $20
Sat & Sun 22, 23 Oct
10am-4pm
Remembrance Day:
A Surgeon Commander & A Leading Cook - Recent War Memoribilia
Wed 29 Oct & 5 Nov, 5.30pm.
Coming soon…
Rozzi Bazzani. Stella Day Out: Katia Ariel & Samah Sabawi, Rachael Johns
Coming soon…
Dianne Dempsey, Chrissie Bellbrae, Paula Gleeson, Rozzi Bazzani.
Coming in November…
Stella Day Out, Ballarat, Rachael Johns & Margaret Hickey
Australian Heritage Festival
Minerva's Secrets
25 April – Tour 1 at 7.30pm – fully booked
Tour 2 at 9.30pm – still tickets.
Spring Season, History Talks:
Ballarat's Henry Lawson - The Dragon's Den - Gold! Gold! Gold!
Wed 3, 17 & 24 September, 5.30pm.
Bubbly on arrival & Featuring quality items from our Vintage Shop | $60
The Ballaarat Mechanics' Institute 2026 Calendar
Featuring illustrations from our Heritage Book Collection $40
Your gift will be tax-deductible this financial year if you make it before June 30.
Like many organisations the BMI faces significant funding challenges.
2 course dinner & lots
of dancing
