PeteField

Ballarat is full of great old buildings with a thriving indi arts and music culture and a couple of cool little bars.

Its perfect for me as it has a super train that makes commuting daily to Melbourne easy - about 1 hour by train and always on time, unlike Melbourne's erratic PT system.

I chose to buy up here after renting in Brunswick, Melbourne for the last 10 years, so you can imagine my main priorities were the arts, great buildings and access to come cool bars/coffee shops and diverse arts community - Ballarat has all these as a smidgin of the price of Melbourne.

I love the duality of the hills and nature combined with hassle free access to Melbourne.

Like everywhere, it takes time to find the cool hidden bars and hangouts - but they do exist and are comparable to some of the more progressive places in Brunswick/Fitzroy.

Ballarat is full of great old buildings with a thriving indi arts and music culture and a couple of cool little bars.

Its perfect for me as it has a super train that makes commuting daily to Melbourne easy - about 1 hour by train and always on time, unlike Melbourne's erratic PT system.

I chose to buy up here after renting in Brunswick, Melbourne for the last 10 years, so you can imagine my main priorities were the arts, great buildings and access to come cool bars/coffee shops and diverse arts community - Ballarat has all these as a smidgin of the price of Melbourne.

Its just really nice to have access to the duality of picaresque hills and nature combined with hassle free access to Melbourne.

There is a bogan problem up here, but no worse than the current knuckheads in Chapel Street, and even they seem to be disappearing as Ballarat begins to cool up - go for it!