Ballarat East is a suburb of Ballarat in Victoria, Australia. From 1857 until 1921 the suburb had its own council (see below). The suburb covers a large area east of the city centre. It is the oldest urban area in Ballarat and was the site of many goldmines, as well as of the Eureka Rebellion. The population of Ballarat East at the was 5,937, making it the 4th most populated suburb in the Ballarat area. The former town retains much of its shambolic character, particularly its winding, unplanned streets, which arose organically among the many gold mines. Much of the suburb is subject to heritage protection because of its local historical significance, with many dwellings dating from between the 1860s and 1940s. History In the 1840s, the Yuille cousins, who were the first colonists to own land in the region of Ballarat, operated their farm from the rich alluvial plain at the base of Black Hill and south of the Yarrowee River. According to historian Weston Bate, the soil was often considered the best in Victoria. This area later became known as Black Hill Flats. The discovery of gold in 1851 led to heavy immigration. Although mining started at Golden Point, within a year the focus shifted to Black Hill Flats. In 1854, in their resistance to an arbitrary tax, gold miners in the area came into armed conflict with the authorities in what became known as the Eureka Rebellion. Main Street developed into the principal commercial area of the Ballarat district. In the 1850s and 1860s the shops were mostly tents and timber buildings. The latter were largely destroyed by a series of fires during the 1860s, resulting in the commercial area shifting to the area that has become the city centre, specifically Sturt and Lydiard Streets. Humffray Street North, then known as Black Hill Road, was prone to flooding in the 1860s due to the extensive mining operations at Black Hill and Black Hill Flats, which had levelled the terrain south of the Yarrowee River. The Ballarat East goldfields, which consisted of three distinct areas known as Ballarat East, Ballarat West and Nerrina, produced over 1.9 million ounces of gold from vein systems and over 16 million ounces from adjacent alluvial deposits. At the turn of the 20th century, these alluvial goldfields were the richest ever opened. As these surface deposits were exhausted the quartz reefs at deep