Ballarat Tramway Museum
| Established | 1971 |
|---|---|
| Location | Ballarat, Victoria, Australia |
| Coordinates | 37°33′05″S 143°49′13″E / 37.5515°S 143.8204°ECoordinates: 37°33′05″S 143°49′13″E / 37.5515°S 143.8204°E |
The Ballarat Tramway Museum is an operating tramway museum, located in Ballarat, Victoria, Australia. The museum is run by volunteers and has a fleet of trams which operate on part of the original horse tramway around Lake Wendouree and the Botanical Gardens. It has a large research collection, archive of information and more than 3,500 items about the Ballarat tramways. The trams in Ballarat operated on a large network through the city from 1887 until 1971.
The first group to work on saving part of the historic tramway was the Lake Wendouree Tramway Museum Committee which in May 1971 began negotiating with the State Electricity Commission of Victoria (SEC) who was the operator of the trams. The Ballarat Tramway Preservation Society was also formed in 1971 to start, and run, an authentic tramway. In 1978 the society was incorporated, as the Ballarat Tourist Tramway. It was renamed the Ballarat Vintage Tramway in 1981. In 1995 they changed the name to the Ballarat Tram Museum Inc.
The original plan was to keep all the tramway that ran around the shores of Lake Wendouree. However, after discussions with the SEC and the City of Ballarat, only the section of track that was in the Botanical Gardens was kept. This included part of the original horse tramway that opened in 1887, and was electrified in 1905. The SEC donated the equipment, track, overhead wires, and trams.
A new tram depot was built as the original depot site was sold in June 1972. The City of Ballarat provided land in the South Gardens Reserve. Six Ballarat trams which had been stored in the old depot had to be towed around Lake Wendouree to the new site. An access track was laid and the trams were hand winched into the new shed. In July 1974 a new substation was built to supply DC current to the trams. On 12 October 1974, Tram No. 27 was able to make several trips along the access track. During November and December 1974 a track was laid to join the new depot to existing tram tracks in Wendouree Parade. This was quite a complex operation as the rails had to be bent to a curve by the Melbourne & Metropolitan Tramways Board's South Melbourne workshops and transported to Ballarat. Wendouree Parade had to be dug up and the new track laid.
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