BALLARAT, or Ballaarat, a large and flourishing city of Australia, in the province of Victoria. It is situated about 58 miles N.W. of Geelong, with which it is connected by railway, and about 66 miles W.N.W. of Melbourne, at an elevation of 1437 feet above the level of the sea, on a small river known as the Yarowee Creek. It consists of three portions,—Ballarat West, Ballarat East, and Sebastopol,—each of which has its own municipality and townhall Its existence and prosperity are solely due to the gold-fields which were discovered here in 1851. In 1855 it was proclaimed a municipality, and in 1870 Ballarat West was raised to the rank of a city. In 1871 it contained 56 churches, 477 hotels, 10,000 dwellings, 11 banks, 8 iron-foundries, 13 breweries and distilleries, 3 flour-mills, a free public library, a mechanics’ institute, a hospital, a “benevolent institution,” a theatre, and a public garden; while about sixty miles of water-mains and fifty of gas-mains had been laid down. Its population—of very various origin, and including a large number of very degraded Chinese, who are huddled together in a separate quarter—then amounted to 48,156.