The New Student's Reference Work/Ballarat

For works with similar titles, see Ballarat.

Bal'larat, a large Australian town, next in importance to Melbourne, is in the province of Victoria. It owes its rise to the discovery of the goldfields there in 1851, being the oldest but one of the gold fields of the colony. It is in the center of one of the richest gold fields of the world. The largest gold-nugget ever discovered was found here in 1858. It was sold for over $50,000. In 1910 about 16,553 men were employed in the gold fields of Victoria colony, 2,000 of whom were Chinese. Population 50,000.