The Ballarat Bulletin

The Ballarat Bulletin Sharing the most interesting content concerning the regional Victorian city of Ballarat

Looking up Sturt Street, Ballarat, on a bright sunny day in 1970 – and honestly, what an incredible view this is! 😍Big c...
27/12/2025

Looking up Sturt Street, Ballarat, on a bright sunny day in 1970 – and honestly, what an incredible view this is! 😍

Big credit to Graham Jordan for sharing the original photo in the first place – an absolute cracker, and a great eye for the moment! 👏

We’ve enhanced it to bring out a bit more detail and colour, but the magic was already there – a true slice of Ballarat on a good day! 📷

Ballarat cops landed themselves a couple of characters in the early hours of Wednesday morning after spotting a dodgy-lo...
12/12/2025

Ballarat cops landed themselves a couple of characters in the early hours of Wednesday morning after spotting a dodgy-looking ride tucked away in a carpark off Lydiard Street.

The thing practically had “come check me out” written on it, so the boys in blue wandered over for a stickybeak and found two occupants sitting inside.

A quick chat turned into a full search, and that’s when the fun really started. Out came the goodies – weapons, drug gear, a stash of actual drugs, and about twelve grand in cash stuffed away.

To top it off, a quick check showed the car itself was allegedly stolen from Melbourne back in September.

The two passengers – a Sebas lass aged in her 20s and a Canadian bloke aged in his 40s – will now be interviewed by detectives.

On the 22nd of November 1973, 16-year-old Sherrlynn Mitchell walked out the front door of her Ballarat home with an ordi...
06/12/2025

On the 22nd of November 1973, 16-year-old Sherrlynn Mitchell walked out the front door of her Ballarat home with an ordinary plan. Meet a friend at the bus stop. It was a simple routine, something she’d done countless times before.

But when the bus arrived and her friend stepped off, the street was empty. No Sherrlynn, and no sign she’d ever been there. And that was the moment her life – and her family’s – split into before and after.

Sherrlynn never turned up for her shift at the Ballarat Woollen Mills. Her wages and holiday pay sat untouched. No phone calls. No notes. No explanation. She simply disappeared, leaving behind nothing but questions that would keep her family awake for the next fifty years.

For her mother, Betty, the waiting became its own kind of torture. From her Wendouree home she kept up a silent vigil, year after year, always listening for the impossible – a knock on the door, the ring of a phone, a familiar silhouette appearing at the gate.

“It never gets easier, it’s really hard all the time,” she said decades later. “It feels like it was just yesterday. You always get that feeling that she could walk in the front door.”

But life was not finished breaking her heart. Betty tragically lost another daughter in a car accident. She buried that child, but the other remained unburied, unaccounted for, unknown – an absence that grew sharper, not softer, with time.

In her later years, when Victoria Police formed a dedicated unit to examine long-term missing persons cases, Betty allowed herself a flicker of hope. Maybe, after all those empty years, someone might finally find the missing piece of the story.

But the truth never surfaced. Betty passed away still carrying the unbearable weight of not knowing – still hoping, still hurting, still waiting for a daughter who didn’t come home.

And now, more than half a century later, the question hangs in the air just as heavily as it did on that November afternoon: What happened to Sherrlynn Mitchell?

Extinction Rebellion Ballarat has held another demonstration in the city this week as the group prepares for a planned t...
22/11/2025

Extinction Rebellion Ballarat has held another demonstration in the city this week as the group prepares for a planned trip to Newcastle.

Members gathered to raise awareness about what they describe as an ongoing climate and biodiversity crisis, saying they intend to continue their activism both locally and interstate.

The group said the lead-up to their Newcastle trip – aimed at protesting coal shipping operations – has been busy, but they still felt it was important to maintain a presence in Ballarat.

Organisers acknowledged the fatigue that comes with sustained activism, but said they do not intend to wind back their efforts.

It was just after 3pm on Thursday when a bloke wandered into the Cathedral of Christ the King looking like he’d walked s...
15/11/2025

It was just after 3pm on Thursday when a bloke wandered into the Cathedral of Christ the King looking like he’d walked straight out of a crime doco – clutching a jerry can, muttering to shadows only he could see.

Police say he splashed petrol across the altar, lectern, and antique furniture before sparking the whole lot up. Within seconds, flames were climbing the rafters and smoke was swallowing the pews.

Parishioners grabbed extinguishers and ran straight into the chaos – not out of heroics, but because they knew if they didn’t, the church on Lydiard Street would be a blackened shell within minutes.

Damage? About $75,000. Motive? Nothing religious, coppers say – just a fella in his early 50s mentally unravelling.

Court footage shown the next day is grim: the man lighting the blaze, turning on parishioners, then smashing his way out with a claw hammer like he was escaping a hostage scene. Detectives tracked him down in Redan and arrested him within 24 hours.

And according to investigators, this wasn’t his first run-in with the cathedral. In the months prior, he allegedly smashed windows, confronted a parishioner in his car, and kicked in a door – a slow, ugly build-up to what happened Thursday.

In court, police told the magistrate the man had stopped taking his medication and was deep in hallucinations. A clinician said he needed a long, supervised stay in acute care – not freedom.

But Victoria’s bail laws had other ideas. Because mentally unwell offenders can’t be transferred directly from custody to the Adult Acute Unit, the magistrate was effectively boxed in.

He had to release him first – meaning coppers would drop him at ED and hope he wouldn’t disappear.

Despite the alleged arson, previous incidents, psychosis, and red flags everywhere, the man walked out on bail with a return date months away.

“Our team of detectives demonstrated their efficiency and skill in identifying, locating, and arresting the offender for this incident in under 24 hours,” reported Detective Sergeant Glen Melder.

“We understand a church is a safe space for many, and it was important for us to find the offender and hold him to account as quickly as possible,” he added.

But for Ballarat, the unease remains. A church nearly burned. People were lucky not to be hurt. A community safe space was torn apart. And the system – yet again – waved danger straight back into the streets.

Ballarat didn’t get closure. It got a ticking clock.

It's Christmas in Ballarat already! 🎅🏻
14/11/2025

It's Christmas in Ballarat already! 🎅🏻

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