Ballarat Boys Reformatory remembered

BALLARAT’S Providore Café is ensuring the city remembers an often-forgotten part of Lake Gardens’ history.

Last week, a rare photo of the site’s first building, now known as The Arches, was hung in the café. It depicts property when it was in busy operation as the Ballarat Reformatory for Boys.

Until 1997, Lake Gardens was the site of the Lakeside Hospital, and even earlier, it was simply the Ballarat Asylum. But not many people know that between 1879 and 1893, it was a home for troubled boys in the prison system.

The photo has been sourced from the Ballarat Mechanics’ Institute’s Max Harris Collection, with permission from curator, Amy Tsilemanis. It’s taken from the Lake endouree side of the building looking towards the Reformatory, with its youth in the foreground, hard at work in the garden.

Rod Sharp was a Lakeside Hospital employee for 28 years as Maintenance Manager and an engineer, and his long-term work on-site sparked the historian within him.

He’s written a book about the asylum’s operations between 1893 and its closure, but also discovered some interesting stories about what happened on the property pre-Lakeside.

“I found out, which I never knew before, that boys as young as eight, to eighteen, were imprisoned in prison hulks at Williamstown,” he said.

“The government conducted an inquiry and decided to move the boys to Jika, which was part of Pentridge Prison.”

While the move was still new, the government began negotiations to acquire the Ballarat site, just off Lake Wendouree which was, at the time, a fair distance from the centre of the town and had recently closed its doors as an Industrial School for Girls.

The site was secured, and it housed and rehabilitated a stream of young men for 14 years. The main building dates back to 1864.

“It’s a very interesting history,” Mr Sharp said. “The building’s been burnt down twice.”

During excavation following the second fire, a solitary confinement cell initially built to discipline girls at the industrial school, was found below the Providore Café’s corner of The Arches. There’s certainly a rich history.

“It’s significant today that the place is recognised for what it’s worth,” Mr Sharp said.

City of Ballarat Mayor, Cr Samantha McIntosh unveiled the Providore’s new photograph with Sharon Monson, the café’s owner.

She emphasised the power of sharing historical stories, which help people to celebrate, appreciate, look after and protect where they live.

“If we leave some great stories behind for other people to treasure, they are healthier, they are happier and they live in communities that are stronger,” she said.

“It gives people so much more respect for these places. There’s always something more to learn.”

Take a close look at the photograph hanging in the Providore Café, 11 Cedars Grove, Lake Gardens.