Mount Helen is a fast-growing southern suburb of

Ballarat Ballarat ( ) () is a city in the Central Highlands of Victoria, Australia. At the 2021 census, Ballarat had a population of 111,973, making it the third-largest urban inland city in Australia and the third-largest city in Victoria. Within mo ...

situated just north of the town of

Buninyong Buninyong is a town 11 km from Ballarat in Victoria, Australia. The town is on the Midland Highway, south of Ballarat on the road to Geelong. Buninyong was proclaimed a town on 27 June 1851 on the same day as Winchelsea, Portarlington, ...

in Victoria,

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising mainland Australia, the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and list of islands of Australia, numerous smaller isl ...

on the Canadian Creek. At the , the population was 3,011. Mount Helen, like nearby Mount Clear is characterised by its topography of gently undulating hills flanked by bush and pine plantation forestry. Canadian Creek, runs north to south through the suburb's centre. The first house in Mount Helen was built in 1952. Mount Helen is the headquarters of

Federation University Australia Federation University Australia (FedUni) is a public university based in Victoria, Australia. It is the modern descendant of the School of Mines Ballarat, established in 1870 as the fourth tertiary institution in Australia, which evolved to f ...

and the Ballarat Technology Park, a campus style office park with tenants including

IBM International Business Machines Corporation (using the trademark IBM), nicknamed Big Blue, is an American Multinational corporation, multinational technology company headquartered in Armonk, New York, and present in over 175 countries. It is ...

, and a number of state government offices including the State Revenue Office, collectively employing more than 1,400 people. Mount Helen once had its own railway station on the

Buninyong railway line The Buninyong Line (also known as "Bunny Hop Line", or simply "The Bunny") was a Victorian Railways (Australia) branch line, which ran south from Ballarat to the nearby town of Buninyong. The line branched from the main Melbourne – Ballarat ...

but the station closed to passengers in 1930. Mount Helen is classed as

automobile A car, or an automobile, is a motor vehicle with wheels. Most definitions of cars state that they run primarily on roads, Car seat, seat one to eight people, have four wheels, and mainly transport private transport#Personal transport, peopl ...

dependent and traffic along its main roads are some of the heaviest in urban Ballarat with over 15,000 vehicles per day and expected to increase by almost 50% over the next three decades.University of Ballarat Travel Plan
/ref> The main form of public transport is a bus service which runs along the Midland Highway between Bunninyong and northern Ballarat at a frequency of approximately 30 minutes.

References

Suburbs of Ballarat {{GrampiansAU-geo-stub