Is it AA or A in Ballaarat?

Extract from the Heritage Victoria Register BMI statement of significance.

“The Ballaarat Mechanics’ Institute in Ballarat was built in two main stages, in 1860-61 and in 1869-70. The Institute had first met unofficially in 1854, with space provided for the first reading room in the Ballarat Fire Brigade building, but a site for a new Institute building was granted in Sturt Street in 1856. The institute was inaugurated by a public meeting in 1859, with the first president being JB Humffray (1824-1891), the Secretary of the Ballaarat Reform League, which had been founded by the diggers in 1854 and instigated the Eureka uprising.“

So, which is correct? Ballaarat or Ballarat. The answer is that both are correct, but Ballaarat is more correct than Ballarat, as far as the BMI is concerned, the registration shows ‘aa’ as the official spelling, but a single ‘a’ is listed under ‘other known names’ . 

The BMI has retained the ‘aa’ long after others in Ballaarat have reverted to ‘a’, as a casual reading of printed headings and advertising will show. 

The song, Ball-aa-rat has been sung with gusto since it was published, it could be heard repeated over and over on tourist radio by our own Frank Callahan and his one man band.

Listen to it here, just click on the little red arrow and try to get it out of your head in the next day or two.

Did you know…

The BMI has three book collections.

Lending library fiction, which comprises titles hot off the press today, right back to the era of Agatha Christie.

Lending library non-fiction that has an extensive coverage of local history, Australiana, war, biography and more, published from fifty years ago to today.

Heritage Collection. Not for loan, but the many thousands of titles are available to members for research and reading. Titles go back to 1580. Sub-categories within the Heritage Collection include, Mining, Ballarat, and Australiana.

Other collections include DVD’s for loan, and newspapers including the Ballarat Star, Ballarat Courier, Melbourne Argus, and the Australasian.

Sometimes an early book will be the basis for further publications. Here are three.

‘Records of a family of Engineers‘ by Robert Louis Stevenson (929STE heritage collection)) was the basis for ‘The lighthouse Stevensons‘ by Bell Bathurst (623.89BAT Lending library).

‘A Voyage around the World 1748 Lord George Anson (910ANS heritage collection) was mentioned in ‘Longtitude‘ by Dava Sobel 520SOB lending library.

‘A New English Dictionary‘ in twelve volumes plus index by James Murray in 1888 (420NEW heritage collection) was compiled in part by ‘The Surgeon of Crowthorne‘ the subject of a book by Simon Winchester 1998 (362.2092WIN Lending library)

Enquiries from members to our research assistants are welcome.