Lake Gardens is a relatively new suburb on the western

rural-urban fringe Peri-urbanisation relates to the processes of scattered and dispersive urban growth that create hybrid landscapes of fragmented and mixed urban and rural characteristics. Such areas may be referred to as the rural–urban fringe, the outskirts ...

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 ...

, Victoria Australia located near

Lake Wendouree Lake Wendouree () is an artificial lake, artificially created and maintained shallow urban lake located adjacent to the Lake Wendouree, Victoria, suburb of the same name in the city of Ballarat, Victoria, Australia. The name Wendouree comes fro ...

and directly behind the

Ballarat Botanical Gardens The Ballarat Botanical Gardens Reserve, located on the western shore of picturesque Lake Wendouree, in Ballarat, Victoria, Australia, covers an area of 40 hectares which is divided into three distinct zones. The central Botanical Gardens reserve ...

from which the suburb draws its name. The suburb is bounded by Gillies Street to the east, O'Donnell's Road to the west and Gregory Street West to the north. The population at the was 1,801. Lake Gardens is almost entirely residential, laid out in

street hierarchy The street hierarchy is an urban planning technique for laying out road networks that exclude automobile through-traffic from developed areas. It is conceived as a hierarchy of roads that embeds the link importance of each road type in the ne ...

with a centrepiece ornamental lake. It has no commercial area; the nearest shopping centres are in Wendouree to the north and Alfredton to the south. Built on the site of a former lunatic asylum, some claim that the suburb is haunted by ghosts.

History

The area of Lake Gardens was formerly open flat marshy land between Black Swamp and Winter Swamp, hunting land for the

Wathaurong The Wadawurrung nation, also called the Wathaurong, or Wathaurung, are an Aboriginal Australian people living in the area near Melbourne, Geelong, and the Bellarine Peninsula in the state of Victoria. They are part of the Kulin alliance. The ...

indigenous tribes. In the fledgling Ballarat of the 1860s, the land west of Ballarat Botanical Gardens was set aside for Prince of Wales Recreation Reserve to the south and to the north, "Reformatory Reserve" stretching toward what was known as the Town Common.

Lakeside Mental Hospital Lakeside Mental Hospital, originally known as Ballarat Asylum, later as Ballarat Hospital for the Insane and finally, before its closure, as Lakeside Psychiatric Hospital, was an Australian psychiatric hospital located in the suburb of Wendoure ...

, a psychiatric asylum, was built on the Reformatory Reserve from 1877. Following the closure of the hospital, City of Ballarat made planning provision for a new suburb on the site. Work began in early 2000 on the 650 metre circumference artificial lake to be the centrepiece surrounded by prestige homes, filled by bore water and storm water. The lake reserve is bounded by Stirling Drive to the north, Lake Gardens Drive to the south, St Cedars Grove to the west and St Glen's way and Gillies Street to the east. The main streets were planted with London plane trees. The large detached homes were progressively built primarily in the neo-eclectic architecture style.

Parks and open space

Lake Gardens is surrounded by open space with the Ballarat Botanic Gardens and former zoo grounds to the east, Wendouree Park and Ballarat Golf Course to the south and vacant land to the west. The Ballarat Aquatic building is in Lake Gardens and includes a 25 Metre eight-lane indoor heated pool.

Transport

The main roads are Lake Gardens Avenue and Stirling Drive. A bus service runs along Gillies street from Alfredton to Ballarat Station via Wendouree, Route 10. Wendouree railway station, opened in 2009 is located immediately north of the suburb in Wendouree.

References

{{Ballarat_suburbs

Lake Gardens Lake Gardens is a neighbourhood of South Kolkata, in Kolkata district, West Bengal, India. It has Kalighat to the north, Jodhpur Park to the east, Prince Anwar Shah Road or Tollygunge to the south and Charu Market to the west. The famous ...

Reportedly haunted locations in Victoria (state)