Making Ballarat Central home - Brodie and Joanna
This professional couple (and their German Shorthaired Pointer) left Melbourne for Ballarat Central and haven’t looked back. Find out what makes them love living in this thriving regional city.
Tell us a little bit about yourself
We’re Brodie and Joanna, and we’re two town planning professionals who have recently moved to Ballarat from St Kilda (Melbourne) with our 15 year old German Shorthaired Pointer Barney. We live in “Neath Villa,” a Victorian-era house in central Ballarat that we have just finished restoring. Outside of this we enjoy keeping active, hiking and travelling.
Brodie, you run Blades Studio; tell us a bit about that
Blades is a boutique urban design consultancy that improves the quality and design of buildings at the initial approval stage of the development process. The goal is to ensure that the community and the ‘public realm’ aren’t forgotten in the design and construction of buildings, which often means giving expert evidence for or against new buildings in town planning courts and Tribunals. We are a small team (two full time urban designers and three part time contractors) and we’re based in both Ballarat and Melbourne.
Joanna, you work for the Ballarat City Council: what’s your role there?
I’m part of the City’s Executive Management team in the town planning and development facilitation space, which means I manage a large team of town planners tasked with improving the quality and design of our communities here in Ballarat.
When did you make the move to Ballarat Central and what was it that attracted you?
We lived in St Kilda for many years and always toyed with the idea of living more regionally in the future. It wasn’t until we were comprehensively beaten at an auction in Melbourne that we decided to bite the bullet and seriously look at investing in a regional town. We bought a Californian Bungalow in Ballarat Central ‘sight unseen’ in 2017, renovated it over the course of a couple of years and moved into it just prior to Covid (January 2020).
Brodie grew up in a Queensland town very similar to Ballarat in many ways, so for us Ballarat was a logical choice to start our regional property search. We spent a weekend getting a feel for the area and that was enough to help us decide that this was the place for us. We were especially drawn to the historic streets and smaller size of the town (perhaps unsurprising for two town planners….). We used to come up every weekend from Melbourne to renovate our little house, and over time we came to love Ballarat so much that we actually used to dread making the trip back to Melbourne for work on a Sunday night.
Aerial shot of Ballarat Central. Ed Sloane Photography
Tell us a bit about your home
We live in a late-Victorian Italianate-style house from the mid-1800s called “Neath Villa”, which sits approximately two blocks from Ballarat’s main street. Neath started life as a dairy in around 1860, and parts of the old dairy remain in the middle of our block where the oldest parts of the house are today. In the late 1800s Neath was bought by a businessman who had the money to renovate, and this resulted in the brick ‘extension’ at the front of the house that we now see from the street. We bought Neath late last year, as we actually used to live two doors down and knew the old owners. It’s funny because we used to always admire it whenever we visited. Since then we have fully renovated Neath top to bottom. Whatever you can think of we have done it! It has taken about a year to finish, but you tend to quickly forget about all the hard work once you see the end result.
How would you describe your style?
If our ‘style’ were a TV show, it would be more like ‘Restoration Australia’ than ‘Grand Designs’ because we tend to go for houses that have history and character, and then work to restore these qualities rather than do something completely different or new. “Neath Villa” is now the third heritage house we have renovated (after an Art Deco apartment in St Kilda and weatherboard California Bungalow in Ballarat), and we’ve tried to let the details and character of the house speak for themselves by keeping things fairly neutral and minimalist.
What do you enjoy about living in Ballarat Central?
So many things. For us it’s the size of the town, the slower pace of life, the quality and detail of the historic buildings, the friends we’ve made, and even the cold weather! But it’s also the fact that there’s so much more on offer when everything is so much more proximate (Daylesford, the Grampians, Bendigo, Geelong, the Surf Coast etc. etc.). Coming from Melbourne, the biggest ‘penny drop’ moment for us in moving here is the fact it is not a case of ‘Melbourne or Ballarat’ – you really can have both, as Ballarat is close and connected enough to Melbourne to duck down for work, a game of football or dinner with friends.
What are your favourite coffee/lunch/wine/dinner spots in Ballarat Central?
There is so much to love about the cafés and restaurants around Ballarat Central. For coffee, we like Fika, Cobbs Coffee and Webster Street Market Café, and for dinner you can’t go past Moon and Mountain or Ragazzone. There’s also a pub on most corners here in Ballarat Central which we love (shout out to the Royal Oak Hotel and The Mallow), as well as new people coming to town and bringing their great ideas and businesses with them (like Midtown Cellars and Fossick Café). Ballarat’s food scene has changed so much in the short time we’ve been here and it really is an exciting time to be in town.
Describe a ‘typical’ weekend at home in Ballarat.
Over the past twelve months, a ‘typical weekend’ has involved plenty of dust and paint and restoration of “Neath Villa”! But now that that’s over, it tends to involve a morning walk and coffee with our dog Barney, exploring the farmers market at Lake Wendouree or Bridge Mall, time spent at Ballarat’s famous Art Gallery, spending time with friends at local bars, trail running at Woowookarung Regional Park, or just relaxing at home.
Photo credits
“Neath Villa”: Marnie Hawson
Moon and Mountain, Ragazzone: Ed Sloane Photography