18/02/2025 @ 6:00 pm - 7:30 pm $10 Humffray Room Get Tickets Cleaved Jane Cafarella. A story of loss, legs and finding family It’s important that genuine stories such as this be published to show the extra-ordinary, day-to-day courage of so-called ‘ordinary’ people - Highly recommended - Hazel Edwards OAM Former journalist for The Age and critically acclaimed Australian playwright and cartoonist, Jane…
25/02/2025 @ 6:00 pm - 8:00 pm $10 Humffray Room Get Tickets Outrageous Fortunes Megan Brown & Lucy Sussex Megan & Lucy will be hosted in conversation by Dr. Meg Tasker The Adventures of Mary Fortune, Crime-writer, and Her Criminal Son 'Engrossingly illuminating and ultimately deeply moving' - John Connolly 'Mary Fortune's bold fictions electrified colonial Australia. But her own story, pieced together…
26/02/2025 @ 5:30 pm - 6:30 pm $9 – $13 Bar open at 5pm $9 – $13 Humffray Room Get tickets Dancers on the Sea: Stories from Atauro Island, Timor-Leste 1994-2002 Speaker: Gabrielle Samson, Author Gabrielle SamsonGabrielle, a writer of fiction and memoir, has won national prizes for her short stories and has co-written a radio play produced by the ABC. She has lived and…
05/03/2025 @ 6:00 pm - 7:00 pm $35 – $110 Bar Open from 5:30pm $35 – $110 Humffray Room Get tickets The world in 2025 and beyond : What is the good news? What is the not-so-good news? Brought to you by Nicolson Construction Speaker: Professor Geoffrey Blainey AC Now in his mid nineties, Professor Geoffrey Blainey – Australia’s most significant and popular historian is…
12/03/2025 @ 5:30 pm - 6:30 pm $9.73 – $13.83 Bar open at 5pm $9.73 – $13.83 Humffray Room Get tickets Ballarat's Growth - Infrastructure Pressures Panel Discussion: Chair, Paula Nicholson, BMI President Paula Nicholson | Chair, Ballaarat Mechanics' Institute Panel Members Terry Natt, Strategic Planning Manager, City of Ballarat Terry has been an urban planner in Ballarat, Sydney, Melbourne and London where he has…
19/03/2025 @ 5:30 pm - 6:30 pm $9.73 – $13.83 Bar open at 5pm $9.73 – $13.83 Humffray Room Get tickets Changes in Ballarat's Car Industry Panel Discussion: Chair, Phil Roberts OAM, Patron & Twilight Talks Coordinator. Dr Phil Roberts OAM Phil Roberts is the co-ordinator of the BMI Twilight Talks and BMI Patron. He is a former secondary school history teacher and school principal and…
24/03/2025 @ 6:00 pm - 7:30 pm $11.78 Humffray Room Get Tickets Wild Dark Shore Charlotte McConaghy. New York Times Best Selling Author From the New York Times bestselling author of Migrations and Once There Were Wolves, a novel about a family living alone on a remote island, when a mysterious woman washes up on shore. At once a gripping mystery, an exquisitely written ode to the natural…
26/03/2025 @ 5:30 pm - 6:30 pm $9.73 – $13.83 Bar open at 5pm $9.73 – $13.83 Humffray Room Get tickets The Changing Face of the Canadian Corridor This talk will outline the impact of the goldrush and forestry on the corridor's native vegetation and waterways. Featuring the long gone Bunny Railway, mining water races, mining infrastructure, forestry and rifle ranges. And focussing on the…
01/04/2025 @ 6:00 pm - 7:30 pm $11.78 Humffray Room Get Tickets Three Boys Gone Mark Smith. Complex and Compelling in all the right ways - Jane Harper... Mark Smith presents the ultimate moral dilemma in a breathtaking psychological thriller. Would you try to save them? 'First rule of rescue: don't create another casualty.' Grace Disher is about to face every teacher's worst…
02/04/2025 @ 5:30 pm - 6:30 pm $9.73 – $13.83 Bar open at 5pm $9.73 – $13.83 Humffray Room Get tickets Dr Hardy and the Men of St Paul's Anglican Church WWI Participants Speaker: Neil Leckie - Co-Cordinator Twilight Talks Neil Leckie is a BMI Member with many years of military service and an interest in The Great War in particular. Neil Leckie Dr Hardy…
09/04/2025 @ 5:30 pm - 6:30 pm $9.73 – $13.83 Bar open at 5pm $9.73 – $13.83 Humffray Room Get tickets War Grieving from a Doctor's Perspective Grief is a natural response to loss. War Grief is complex. Ballarat’ s participation in WW1 was substantial: about 4000 men from Ballarat enlisted in World War One and approximately 800 died. How was this preserved from a…
09/04/2025 @ 7:00 pm - 8:00 pm $11.78 Humffray Room Get Tickets The Private Island | The Last Illusion of Paige White Ali Lowe | Vanessa McCausland. The Private Island Ali Lowe Ali Lowe New Year's Eve, Loloma Island, Fiji. At one of the most exclusive island resorts in the Pacific ocean, the champagne is poured, the fireworks ready and the countdown to…
Minerva's Secrets Night Tours
Tue 19 May with special visit to Lantern Vaults
Tour 1 at 7pm – Tour 2 at 9pm.
Remembrance Day:
A Surgeon Commander & A Leading Cook - Recent War Memoribilia
Wed 29 Oct & 5 Nov, 5.30pm.
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.
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
Pre-Sale $60 from 6 Aug to 9 Aug - $65 thereafter
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
