22/05/2024 @ 6:00 pm - 9:30 pm $106.14 An all-drinking, all-eating exploration of the booze-fuelled birth of colonial Ballarat. Starting with a native botanical cocktail and snacks at Ballarat’s newest distillery, Itinerant Spirits, your expert guides - award-winning food and wine writers Richard Cornish, Max Allen and Ballarats own Zac Hill - will lead you on an indulgent, leisurely and atmospheric evening walking…
01/06/2024 @ 10:00 am - 11:00 am Free Join us for a glorious morning high tea and speeches to launch our first official Ballarat Pride Month! Dress in something that makes you feel fabulous! Pride Month (June) is the month where we celebrate lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, intersex, queer and asexual people. We take the time to acknowledge their contributions to the world, we commemorate…
02/06/2024 @ 10:00 am - 3:00 pm Free Come help us celebrate the opening weekend of Pride Month with the Pride Month Market at the Ballaarat Mechanic's Institute. With art and craft stalls, trash and treasure and second hand goods stalls as well as the awesome Trans And Gender Diverse Clothing Swap and A Queer Little Library you're bound to find a gem…
17/06/2024 @ 10:00 am - 26/07/2024 @ 3:00 pm Free BALLARAT WINTER FESTIVAL - ART PROJECT | A Fortunate Series of Events: A Projection Installation by Human Designs, Featuring Melinda Muscat.
22/07/2024 @ 10:30 am - 27/07/2024 @ 3:00 pm RARE BOOK WEEK | This Vintage Book Sale will feature a variety of titles including fiction and non-fiction.
07/08/2024 @ 5:30 pm - 7:00 pm Free NATIONAL SCIENCE WEEK | Researchers from across Australia are working at an underground lab in Stawell to uncover one of the great mysteries of the universe – the nature of dark matter.
23/08/2024 @ 8:00 pm - 9:10 pm $15 – $30 FAQT: FESTIVAL OF QUEER THEATRE | Serial nudist, Freankie van Kan achieves the improbable task of exposing more of herself than ever before. Recommended audience 18+
24/08/2024 @ 11:00 am - 2:00 pm $25 – $50 FAQT: FESTIVAL OF AUSTRALIAN QUEER THEATRE | Presenting a writing and practice workshop.
24/08/2024 @ 2:30 pm - 5:30 pm $25 – $50 FAQT: FESTIVAL OF QUEER THEATRE | Masterclass workshop, explores creating from what is most urgent...
24/08/2024 @ 7:30 pm - 8:40 pm $15 – $30 FAQT: FESTIVAL OF QUEER THEATRE | Written by Em Chandler, a staged reading...
25/08/2024 @ 12:00 pm - 1:20 pm $15 – $30 FAQT: FESTIVAL OF QUEER THEATRE | Commissioned by Festival of Australian Queer Theatre Will you let yourself go? How far are you willing to go? Who are you willing to let...
25/08/2024 @ 2:30 pm - 4:00 pm $15 – $30 FAQT: FESTIVAL OF QUEER THEATRE | Hosted by John Kachoyan. Until comparatively recently, live performance work and story telling on the Australian stage was still rare and scandalous. That doesn’t mean it didn’t exist. From 1800s male impersonator Effie Fellows to modern classics oF...
Fundraiser for Ballarat RSL & BMI
$33 per person
Minerva's Secrets Night Tours
Tue 19 May with special visit to Lantern Vaults
Tour 1 at 7pm – Tour 2 at 9pm.
Calling for Pre-loved books
These donation assist in our Library Fundraising Activities
We can take delivery during regular Library operating hours. See website footer.
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
Sunday 6 September at 2pm - Cost $65
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.
