Heritage Weekend: Childhood Memories

Ballarat hosted it's Heritage Weekend this weekend again, in line with Mother's Day, with the theme being Childhood Memories. Keen to check out the displays after our Mother's Day brunch fest made by Katie, following our walk in the morning, the three of us ventured into town to have a little look.

On the Saturday I had a vantage point of the steam train making it's glorious trips, a couple each day of the weekend for excited riders, and then there was the sight of a horse-drawn tram clopping along the Wendouree Lake tracks. Plus it seemed that every vintage bus of Victoria was doing a run around town, which were pretty novel and cute! But the thing that caught my eye for the weekend, and managed to help convince Mum of the need for an outing to have a look, was the display of old childhood toys at the Mining Exchange.


The rooms, filled with people, were decked out with pedal cars and dolls from 1930s to the 1970s, including play sets and furniture and very early Barbie.

Outside there was a miniature and very cute carousel, and then a display of vintage and restored cars and caravans.

After our wander through all the displays Katie and I took Mum into the Sweet Decadence Cafe at the Art Gallery for scones, jam and cream and tea, to complete our afternoon.

The Heritage Weekend seems to be a staying feature on the Ballarat calender now, although I continue to be surprised at it's scheduling on Mother's Day weekend. I guess they are capturing people after their breakfast or brunch with Mum in town, or after a lunch gathering, although I do wonder if they would gather more people if it was a stand alone weekend. People certainly are home for this weekend, looking for additional things to do. The challenge now will be to come up with new and interesting themes and activities each year, for the same visitors.