30/10/2024 @ 6:00 pm - 8:00 pm $10 Humffray Room Everyone This Christmas Has A Secret Benjamin Stevenson. Strap yourself in for Christmas hijinks, done the way only Benjamin Stevenson can.’ Hayley Scrivenor An ingenious and hilarious meta-murder mystery. - Sunday Times When a Christmas show takes a dark turn after a magician’s guillotine trick goes awry, who should be in the front…
11/11/2024 @ 6:00 pm - 8:00 pm $10 Humffray Room Get Tickets The Golden Thread Tea Cooper. Intricate threads from the past and the present bind together a yellow silk dress, lost gold and a missing grandmother in a twisty historical mystery from the bestselling author of: The Talented Mrs Greenway. Maitland, 1889When nineteen-year-old Constance Montague wakes one Wednesday she expects the day…
16/11/2024 @ 1:00 pm - 2:00 pm Free STELLA DAY OUT: Writing about the Future | Kate Mildenhall in conversation with Van Badham | 16 November 1pm - 2pm | Free
16/11/2024 @ 3:00 pm - 4:00 pm Free STELLA DAY OUT: Travel Writing | Adriane Howell and Favel Parrett in conversation with Fiona Sweet. | 16 November 3pm - 4pm | Free.
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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
