29/04/2025 @ 6:00 pm - 7:30 pm $11.78 Humffray Room Get Tickets Vanish Shelley Burr. Some Stay. Some Leave. Some Disappear... Author, Shelley Burr | Photo: Yen Eriksen Media People go to the isolated Karpathy farm looking for a new life… and are never seen again. A chilling thriller from the award-winning and bestselling author of Australian noir, Shelley Burr.Lane Holland's crime-solving career…
30/04/2025 @ 5:30 pm - 6:30 pm $9.73 – $13.83 Bar open at 5pm $9.73 – $13.83 Humffray Room Get tickets The Life of Walter Withers Until now there has been no family history of Walter Withers (1854-1914), a notable but underestimated Australian landscape artist of the Heidelberg school. For nearly 200 years his Birmingham ancestors had worked as tailors, sometimes also butchers. During the…
30/04/2025 @ 7:00 pm - 8:00 pm Free – $12 – $12 Lending Library These classes offer simple, practical methods to improve the quality of our life and develop inner peace through meditation and Buddhist teachings. The in-person setting fosters a supportive community and offers real-time interaction with the teacher for personalized guidance. Classes include guided meditations and teachings to help us solve our daily…
01/05/2025 @ 6:00 pm - 8:00 pm $11.78 Humffray Room Get Tickets The Mademoiselle Alliance Natasha Lester. Inspired by a True Story A remarkable Australian talent - The Age A master storyteller - Daily Telegraph How did a young Parisienne mother, celebrated for her beauty and glamour, come to lead the largest spy network in France? A powerful, heartbreaking historical novel by the…
04/05/2025 @ 2:00 pm - 4:00 pm Humffray Room The Deepest Thing: A Poetic Memoir E A Gleeson. An Afternoon of folk music and poetry. The Deepest Thing: A Poetic Memoir | E A Gleeson The poetic memoir portrays the beauty and harshness of my sister Denise’s life. The poems depict the reality of her medical conditions, the characteristics of her personality…
07/05/2025 @ 6:00 pm - 7:30 pm $11.78 Humffray Room Get Tickets The House of Kwa Mimi Kwa. The dragon circles and swoops ... a tiger running alone in the night ... Mimi Kwa ignored the letter for days. When she finally opened it, the news was so shocking her hair turned grey. Why would a father sue his own daughter? The collision…
07/05/2025 @ 7:00 pm - 8:00 pm Free – $12 – $15 Lending Library These classes offer simple, practical methods to improve the quality of our life and develop inner peace through meditation and Buddhist teachings. The in-person setting fosters a supportive community and offers real-time interaction with the teacher for personalized guidance. Classes include guided meditations and teachings to help us solve our daily…
08/05/2025 @ 7:30 pm - 9:00 pm Italian Neorealist Drama The Bicycle Thief is regularly voted one of the greatest films of all time. It was a key example of the Italian ‘cinema of the real’ which heralded a new kind of cinematic naturalism, employing non-professional actors and filming on the streets of a post-war Europe. Antonio, a poor father, is on the…
09/05/2025 @ 6:00 pm - 7:00 pm Free Venue: The Basement Get Tickets Seedpod ballarat: Oubliette Gemma Cavoli, 'Oubliette' | Photo: Jennie Courtney ‘Oubliette’ is the new work in progress by Seedpod residency artist Gemma Cavoli. Taking its cue from the French verb oublier – to forget – the work interweaves stories of hidden occupancies, silenced voices and marginal spaces. With audiences as…
09/05/2025 @ 7:30 pm - 9:00 pm $28.23 – $41.82 Venue: Minerva Theatre Get Tickets Lost Voices Presents: The Amazing Lucas Girls This play will be coming straight from its season at The Sydney Theatre Company, Wharf 2 as part of: HerStory Arts Festival The Amazing Lucas Girls is a beautiful story of women courageously and caringly banding together in adversity. After sellout audiences of Forgotten (based…
10/05/2025 @ 2:00 pm - 3:00 pm Free Venue: The Basement Get Tickets Seedpod ballarat: Oubliette Gemma Cavoli, 'Oubliette' | Photo: Jennie Courtney ‘Oubliette’ is the new work in progress by Seedpod residency artist Gemma Cavoli. Taking its cue from the French verb oublier – to forget – the work interweaves stories of hidden occupancies, silenced voices and marginal spaces. With audiences as…
10/05/2025 @ 2:30 pm - 4:00 pm $28.23 – $41.82 Venue: Minerva Theatre Get Tickets Lost Voices Presents: The Amazing Lucas Girls This play will be coming straight from its season at The Sydney Theatre Company, Wharf 2 as part of: HerStory Arts Festival The Amazing Lucas Girls is a beautiful story of women courageously and caringly banding together in adversity. After sellout audiences of Forgotten (based…
Minerva's Secrets Night Tours
Tue 19 May with special visit to Lantern Vaults
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
