City of Ballarat
Local government area
Map of the City of Ballarat's municipal borders, urban areas and location in Victoria
Country	Australia
State	Victoria
Region	Grampians
Established	6 May 1994
Council seat	Central
Government
• Mayor	Cr Tracey Hargreaves
• State electorates	Eureka Ripon Wendouree
• Federal division	Ballarat
Area [1]
• Total	739 km2 (285 sq mi)
Population
• Total	107,325 (2018)[1]
• Density	145.23/km2 (376.14/sq mi)
Gazetted	6 May 1994[2]
Website	City of Ballarat
LGAs around City of Ballarat Pyrenees Hepburn Hepburn Pyrenees City of Ballarat Moorabool Golden Plains Golden Plains Moorabool

TheCity of Ballarat is alocal government area in the west of the state ofVictoria, Australia. It covers an area of 739 square kilometres (285 sq mi) and, in June 2023, had a population of 118,137.^[3] It is primarily urban with the vast majority of its population living in theGreater Ballarat urban area, while other significant settlements within the LGA includeBuninyong,Waubra,Learmonth andAddington.

The city is governed and administered by theBallarat City Council; itsseat of local government and administrative centre is located at the council headquarters in Ballarat, it also has a service centre located in Buninyong. The city is named after the main urban settlement lying in the centre-south of the LGA, Ballarat, which is also the LGA's most populous urban area with a population of 105,471.^[4]

The City of Ballarat was formed on 6 May 1994 from the amalgamation of theCity of Ballaarat,Shire of Ballarat,Borough of Sebastopol and parts of theShire of Bungaree,Shire of Buninyong,Shire of Grenville andShire of Ripon.^[2]

2024 ward boundaries. Expand the map and click on a ward to see the ward name

The council has nine elected Councillors, each representing a municipal electoral ward.^[5]The current Council, elected in November 2024, is:^[6]

The council meets in the council chambers at the council headquarters in the Ballarat Town Hall Offices, which is also the location of the council's administrative activities. It also provides customer services at both its administrative centre in Ballarat, and its service centre in Buninyong.

The council's main offices are in a modern extension behind the Town Hall called The Phoenix. In 2009 the council voted to move to a new headquarters at Civic Hall on Mair Street,^[7] which would turn the heritage listed Town Hall building into a public general purpose venue.

Prior to the2024 Election, TheVictorian Electoral Commission conducted a review into the electoral structure of multiple Victorian Councils including the City of Ballarat.^[8] As part of this review it was deemed that from the 2024 Election, the council would take up nine single-councillor wards, namely:

• Alfredton Ward
• Brown Hill Ward
• Buninyong Ward
• Central Ward
• Delacombe Ward
• Golden Point Ward
• North Ward
• Sebastopol Ward
• Wendouree Ward

This section is an excerpt fromResults of the 2024 Victorian local elections in Grampians § Ballarat results.[edit]

2024 Victorian local elections: Ballarat^[9][10]

Party			Votes	%	Swing	Seats	Change
	Independents		35,499	51.50	+21.93	4	1
	Independent Liberal		15,177	22.02	−3.37	2	1
	Independent Labor		9,955	14.44	−10.67	3	1
	Greens		8,294	12.03	−4.91	0	1
Formal votes			68,925	97.10	−0.87
Informal votes			2,057	2.90	+0.87
Total			70,982	100.00		9
Registered voters / turnout			86,108	82.43	−0.18

This section is an excerpt fromResults of the 2020 Victorian local elections in Grampians § Ballarat.[edit]

2020 Victorian local elections: Ballarat^[11]

Party			Votes	%	Swing	Seats	Change
	Independent		20,266	29.57	−17.82	3	1
	Independent Liberal		17,403	25.39	−1.92	3	1
	Labor		17,213	25.11	+11.62	2
	Greens		11,614	16.94	+4.13	1
	Australia First		1,391	2.03	+2.03	0
	Animal Justice		659	0.96	+0.96	0
Formal votes			68,546	97.97
Informal votes			1,420	2.03
Total			69,966	100.0
Registered voters / turnout			84,694	82.61

This section is an excerpt fromResults of the 2016 Victorian local elections § Ballarat.[edit]

2016 Victorian local elections: Ballarat^[12]

Party			Votes	%	Seats	Change
	Independent		27,257	46.39	2	1
	Independent Liberal		16,043	27.31	4	1
	Labor		7,925	13.49	2
	Greens		7,527	12.81	1
Formal votes			58,752	100.0

Central Ward

The 2021 census, the city had a population of 113,763 up from 101,686 in the 2016 census^[14]

^ –Territory divided with anotherLGA
* –Not noted in 2016 Census

The City of Ballarat's sister cities are:^[15]

• List of localities in Victoria
• Ballarat

• Ballarat City Council official website
• Metlink local public transport map
• Link to Land Victoria interactive mapsArchived 24 March 2022 at theWayback Machine
• Interactive map of Victorian local government areas (pre-1994 vs present) -Victorian Government - Digital Twin Victoria

37°33′00″S143°51′00″E / 37.55000°S 143.85000°E /-37.55000; 143.85000

• Local government areas of Victoria (state)
• Grampians (region)
• City of Ballarat
• Ballarat

• Pages using gadget WikiMiniAtlas
• Use Australian English from April 2014
• All Wikipedia articles written in Australian English
• Use dmy dates from October 2024
• Articles with short description
• Short description matches Wikidata
• Pages using infobox settlement with no map
• Pages using infobox settlement with no coordinates
• Articles with excerpts
• Webarchive template wayback links
• Coordinates on Wikidata
• Pages using the Kartographer extension