Ballarat Showgrounds, Agricultural showgrounds in Wendouree, Australia

Ballarat Showgrounds was a 10-hectare venue at Creswick Road and Howitt Street in Wendouree, with Eureka Stadium, permanent pavilions, and Beggs Avenue cutting diagonally past carnival rides and animal displays. It closed in 2024 and was demolished.

The Ballarat Agricultural and Pastoral Society formed in 1856 at Learmonth, and the first agricultural show in Ballarat city took place in 1859. In 1861 the grounds moved to the north-east flank of Lake Wendouree, bounded by Wendouree Parade, Burnbank and Gregory Streets. In 1934 the society settled at Howitt Street and Creswick Road in Wendouree, where shows ran until 2023.

The annual Ballarat Show displays achievements from rural industries through livestock exhibitions and produce competitions that reflect local farming life. Visitors experience traditional skills and agricultural practices that remain important to the surrounding communities.

The site closed after its last public event, the Victorian annual sheepdog trials, in June 2024, and demolition ran from September to December 2024, so there is nothing left to visit. The main entrance was at the corner of Creswick Road and Howitt Streets, with Beggs Avenue cutting diagonally to Bolte Place and Whykes Street along the southern border. Eureka Stadium, now Mars Stadium, stands where the trotting arena was dismantled in 1990.

A 670-yard sand-based harness-racing arena with two light towers opened here in 1951; the Ballarat and District Trotting Club, Australia's oldest harness racing club, raced on it from 14 April 1952 until December 1965. The arena was dismantled in 1990 and replaced by Eureka Stadium, now commercially known as Mars Stadium.