Ararat

Revisit the gold rush from a different perspective in Ararat, an old gold mining site with the fascinating distinction of being the only town in Australia to be founded by Chinese.

From Chinese gold to a city of asylums
Check out the Gum San Chinese Heritage Museum for an insight into the lives of Chinese immigrants to Victoria during the gold rush. Learn how the chance discovery of gold by a party of Chinese miners en route to the established gold fields marked the beginning of the boom for Ararat.

For guaranteed goosebumps, tred the halls of J Ward, an imposing bluestone jail that was home to Victoria's criminally insane from 1859 to 1991, or take a ghost tour of Aradale, Australia's largest abandoned lunatic asylum.

You don't have to be certified to get along to the annual Jailhouse Rock Festival, but you do have to lose your inhibitions as you rock and roll and celebrate the 1950s and '60s.

Contemporary creativity
Step back into modern times and check out present-day creativity at the Ararat Regional Art Gallery, which houses one of regional Australia's two major contemporary fibre and textile art collections.