[Ballarat from the Fire Brigade Tower, Looking East.]

Description

Impressive and rare c.19th panorama of Ballarat by Eugene von Guerard.

There are two versions of this engraved panorama commissioned by the Ballarat Star for which the original drawings are in the Ballarat Art Gallery and in the Dixon Library Sydney.

1. The Ballarat Fine Art Gallery version has had an additional row of buildings included at the foot of the composition. 

2. The Dixson Library drawing is dated 19–23 January 1869, this is the version of the engraving we are offering.

By the late 1860s Ballarat had shed its image of gold-rush impermanence; the unruly tent town of the 1850s had developed into a prosperous city. Anthony Trollope, who visited in 1871, found a “… town so well built, so well ordered, endowed with present advantages so great in the way of schools, hospitals, libraries, hotels, public gardens and the like …“

The Golden City played host to Prince Alfred, Duke of Edinburgh in December 1867 and two years later held a Fine Arts Exhibition at its local Mechanics’ Institute. It was in this spirit of blossoming civic pride that in 1869 the proprietors of the Ballarat Star commissioned Eugene von Guerard to draw a panorama of Ballarat. 

References:
Ferguson, J. A. Bibliography of Australia Volumes 1-8, Canberra 1976: 18715.

Collections:
National Library Australia: Bib ID 2839411
State Library Victoria: H 994.531 B21W Ba
State Library New South Wales: Record Identifier 74VvGrGQlp2b
State Library Victoria: