Mount Pleasant’s history all mapped up

MOUNT Pleasant, Ballarat’s oldest residential suburb, was founded near the Mount Pleasant Reserve in 1854.

Now the Mount Pleasant History Group in partnership with the East Ballarat Neighbourhood Centre have created a new brochure and associated website as a guide to discovering the suburb’s history.

Dr. Bill Garner, Consultant Historian for the Group, said the Discover Historic Mount Pleasant brochure is for residents as much as it is for visitors.

“It will remind them of the rich history present in the streets and encourage them to see their own suburb with fresh eyes,” he said.

Max Duthie, President of the Mount Pleasant History Group said the first aim of the group is to collect and tell the stories of people, places and businesses in the area with the brochure highlighting 20 significant sites.

“There are four key locations in the project where interpretive signage will be erected in the coming months,” he said.

Fittingly the first location, the Mount Pleasant Reserve, was the first tent settlement of the Cornish miners and their families in 1854.

As the miners lived there and worked somewhere else Mount Pleasant qualifies as the first residential suburb of Ballarat.

The second position is Pearce’s Park band rotunda at the corner of Barkly and Gladstone streets.

The signage at these two key locations will have detailed information on all 20 sites in the project.

The 1865 bluestone Methodist Church on Morton Street is the third key setting.

“There is a magnificent cedar grove planted to commemorate WWI near the church,” said Kate Owen, Community Development Officer at Ballarat Neighbourhood Centre who is overseeing the project.

The final key location is the Mount Pleasant Primary School in Cobden Street, the first state school built in Ballarat.

The City of Ballarat has funded the project through the Mount Pleasant Engaging Communities Program.

There are QR codes which can be scanned by mobile phone on the signs and brochures which will give access to the further information on the website hulballarat.org.au/discovermtpleasant.

A Discover Historic Mount Pleasant exhibition is on display at the Ballarat Observatory during its normal opening hours and also over the Heritage Weekend Saturday, 25 and Sunday, 26 May from 2pm to 5pm.

For further information contact Max Duthie on 0407 664 593.