Real life tour guided by online book

A NEW self-guided walking tour and guidebook launched on Friday, 20 May and it’s highlighting twenty-two Ballarat shops, galleries, cafes, and locations throughout the CBD.

The tour and accompanying e-book were developed by Jarrod and Emma Hall, who said they were inspired by the slow travel they undertook during nine years living in South Korea.

“It was all about slowing down and enjoying the scenery, walking or cycling on a slow, beautiful route,” she said.

“It’s not like the more extreme walking sports you might associate with travelling in Australia. It’s more leisurely, and the concept really resonated with us, so we wanted to bring it here.

“We like to support small businesses and artists, and we enjoy nature too so we wanted to make something that we could share with people here that would highlight that about Ballarat.”

Timed to release with the Ballarat Heritage Festival, the digital guidebook comprises interactive links for each location, with stories through history podcasts alongside photos and videos created by Mr Hall.

A hard copy is set to be launched in June with QR codes links to additional information, and plans are underway to release a second route later in the year.

The guidebook will remain available until July, and Mr Hall said part of its purpose is to get people “appreciating what’s local” while generating support for the featured businesses.

“There’s some really cool stuff in Ballarat, and there’s some really cool people doing great stuff, and a lot of them are still struggling with COVID,” he said.

“Places on this guide like The Known World bookshop deserve to be massive, it’s just that great, and at least half of the businesses on this guide have actually told us they’re struggling a bit.

“This is kind of a secondary goal, getting people who actually live here to understand what they’ve been missing out on their whole time here.”

The Hidden Lanes guidebook can be purchased for $8.50 at hiddenlanes.com.au/store/p/ballarat.