What The Bones Know Kirstyn McDermott A child’s bones, a lost girl, a mind adrift – sometimes what is lost comes back to haunt you…from an award-winning author comes a contemporary gothic tale of guilt, grief and redemption. In the village of Kiln Creek in the Victorian Highlands, a ghost gum falls in a storm. […]
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August 12 @ 6:00 pm – 7:30 pm $11.78 Humffray Room Get Tickets The Frock Shop Sophie Green Meet the Ladies of The Frock Shop Where clothes are just the start of the story Australian bestseller Sophie Green returns with a sparkling story about the beauty of the second-hand, the power of second chances, and becoming who
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Letter from Provence: A memoir Sheryle Bagwell Australian journalist Sheryle Bagwell’s move to Provence is enlivened by the discovery of a book of seventeenth-century letters. After buying an ancient stone house in Provence, Australian journalist Sheryle Bagwell finds in her attic an old edition of selected letters by the seventeenth-century French noblewoman Madame de Sévigné,
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May 11 @ 6:00 pm – 7:30 pm $11.78 Humffray Room Get Tickets The Marriage Trap Victoria Purman In 1960s Australia, the scent of freedom is in the air… From bestselling Australian author, comes the story of a mother and her two daughters, set in the tumultuous extraordinary decade of the 1960s. A time of
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The Romanov Secret Chrissie Bellbrae Don’t miss Chrissie at the BMI on Tuesday 24 March at 6pm A priceless Fabergé jewel. An empire on the brink of revolution. A love to dangerous to reveal. A celebrated artist’s painting holds clues to long-held family secrets and lives under threat, long after the fall of the Russian
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July 15 @ 6:00 pm – 7:30 pm $11.78 Humffray Room Get Tickets Seen Again: Light On Matrescence Benita Bensch Seen Again is a modern companion through matrescence, the profound transition of becoming a mother. Matrescence is a biological, psychological, emotional, social and spiritual transformation that can leave mothers without the language or support to make
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June 23 @ 6:00 pm – 7:30 pm $11.78 Humffray Room Get Tickets Where Truth Ends Mark Smith What if everything you believed in was a lie? Truth and betrayal collide in the new Mark Smith thriller, perfect for fans of Christian White and Lisa Jewell. Meg Maher thought she was doing the right thing.
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May 27 @ 6:30 pm – 8:00 pm $11.78 Humffray Room Get Tickets The Model Murder Amanda Hampson A Tea Ladies Mystery A model vanishes – A man is murdered – and the Tea Ladies are back on the case. Sydney, 1968. In a shadowy city lane, a young man is shot dead. His glamorous
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The Missing Wife Kerry Barrett 1933 Hannah Snow is fleeing her unhappy marriage when she finds herself in a small hotel on the banks of Loch Ness. But when a monster is spotted in the depths of the waters, the press descends- and Hannah finds her hiding place is discovered. Present Day. True crime podcaster Scarlett
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April 30 @ 6:30 pm – 8:00 pm $11.78 Humffray Room Get Tickets When lemons give you life Anna Johnston ‘Smart, authentic and full of heart’ – Graeme Simsion From the author of The Borrowed Life of Frederick Fife Redemption is a dish best served warm… Retired Michelin-star chef Griff Barlow has lost his appetite for
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Minerva's Secrets Night Tours
Night Tours
Fri 31 Oct – Sat 15 Nov
& Fri 12 Dec
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
