Talks 2 - Ballaarat Mechanics' Institute

Woman smiling softly in burgundy jumper for Twilight Talks 2026

Twilight Talks: Season 2, Understanding the Language of your Body

November 25 @ 5:30 pm – 6:30 pm $9 – $13 Get Tickets Create Better Health by Understanding the Language of Your Body: Ancient Wisdom, Modern Science & the Microbiome Connection. Speaker: Meredith O’Loughlan The Language of your body Neurobiome Wheel Inner circle: regulatory domains Outer circle: biopatterns The Neurobiome Wheel is a simple framework that helps decode the body’s signals by connecting symptoms into meaningful health…

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Pressed dried flowering plant specimen with roots on paper

150 Years of Botanical Communication

By Mark

August 7 @ 6:00 pm – 7:00 pm $15 Get Tickets Before digital databases and photography, how did we learn about the natural world? This Biodiversity Week, discover the BMI’s rare set of Ferdinand von Mueller’s Educational Collections of Victorian Plants (1874–1876). Designed to “diffuse information on the native vegetation” across Victoria, this historic herbarium and book collection reveals how early scientific communication cultivated

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Arresting the Ephemeral: The Beautiful Usefulness of a Victorian Herbarium

By Mark

July 24 @ 11:00 am – 12:30 pm Free Humffray Room Get Tickets The Ballaarat Mechanics’ Institute is custodian of the most intact surviving set of the Educational Collections of Victorian Plants (1874–1876). A herbarium and series of books compiled by the first Chief Botanist of the Colony of Victoria, Baron Sir Ferdinand von Mueller. This presentation reveals the history and significance of this remarkable collection,

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Twilight Talks: Focus on Ballarat – What We Watched Before Cinema: ‘Entertainments’ at the Mechanics’ Hall, 1863–1919

By Mark

May 6 @ 5:30 pm – 6:30 pm $9 – $13 Humffray Room Get Tickets What We Watched Before Cinema: ‘Entertainments’ at the Mechanics’ Hall, 1863–1919 Speaker: Ellen Becker When the Mechanics’ Hall opened in 1863, the people of Ballarat flocked to see some strange and spectacular contemporary entertainments — mesmerists, automata, waxworks, human curiosities, and the magic of the first moving image technologies. Join Curator Ellen

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Twilight Talks: Focus on Ballarat – Ballarat Avenue of Honour

By Mark

April 22 @ 5:30 pm – 6:30 pm $9 – $13 Humffray Room Get Tickets Ballarat’s Avenue of Honour & A look behind names on the Avenue plaques Speakers: Amethyst May & Gary Snowden About the speakers Amethyst May Amethyst May is a student at Mount Clear College who has a passion for Australia’s war history. She will present a short documentary on Ballarat’s women during the

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Twilight Talks: Focus on Ballarat – Henry Lawson in Ballarat revisited

By Mark

April 15 @ 5:30 pm – 6:30 pm $9 – $13 Humffray Room Get Tickets Henry Lawson in Ballarat – Revisited Speaker: Hedley Thomson ‘Last November Hedley Thomson provided an entertaining and informative presentation about Henry Lawson’s 1887 visit to Ballarat to explore the Eureka Rebellion sites. This year he will return to this topic, detailing the impact of that visit and the events of Eureka

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Twilight Talks: Focus on Ballarat – Nostalgic memories of Stawell & Ballarat – 1950s and 1960s

By Mark

April 29 @ 5:30 pm – 6:30 pm $9 – $13 Humffray Room Get Tickets Dickie Larsen’s Pumpkin & Other Stories Speaker: Geoff Carr, author Spike is a young boy in 1950s Australia, surrounded by sprawling landscapesand a menagerie of animals. Together with his friends Leany and Riddy, they do what all young boys in the bush do: make their own fun. From chooks in outhouses,

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The Secret History of Sharks with Professor John Long | National Science Week

By Mark

15/08/2025 @ 6:00 pm – 7:30 pm $8 – $11 NATIONAL SCIENCE WEEK | The Secret History of Sharks with Professor John Long.

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Twilight Talks 2025, Season 5, Recent Years | Ballarat Arts Foundation: 25 Years Old, Presented by Paula Nicholson

By Mark

26/11/2025 @ 5:30 pm – 6:30 pm $9.73 – $13.83 Bar open at 5pm $9.73 – $13.83 Humffray Room Get tickets Ballarat Arts Foundation: 25 Years Old The Ballarat Arts Foundation (BAF) has been supporting the emerging artists of Ballarat for 25 years. The Foundation is completely community funded and supports artists from any genre, with an alumni group numbering over 500 artists who have

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Twilight Talks 2025, Season 5, Recent Years | Ballarat’s Her Majesty’s Reinvention, Presented by Richard Nicholson

By Mark

19/11/2025 @ 5:30 pm – 6:30 pm $9.73 – $13.83 Bar open at 5pm $9.73 – $13.83 Humffray Room Get tickets Her Majesty’s Renovation This talk will examine the recent renovation of Her Majesty’s Theatre and explore the challenges, rewards and outcomes for the community that accompany transformational change to a treasured Heritage Building in the heart of the City of Ballarat. Speaker: Richard Nicholson

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