About Lal Lal

Lal Lal is a quaint little village settling between the shadows of Mt Buninyong and Mt Doran. Only 20 minutes drive from Ballarat. Lal Lal boasts a history of gold, coal, kaolin and iron mines, hotels, breweries, a famous racecourse, brickwork's and a bluestone railway station with a bluestone water tower and pumping station.

A short distance from the junction of Iron Mine road with the road from Lal Lal is the Lal Lal Falls. Here water drops thirty meters into gorge formed by the collapse of  lava tunnel. The Aborigine's believed that Bunjil, their creator, lived here.

Water from the natural Lal Lal Falls runs to the Lal Lal reservoir, being held back by the Bungal Dam.

Dates of significance for Lal Lal:

1840 - Lal Lal taken up by Blackney and Airey
1845 - Lal Lal purchased by A.Fisken
1857 - First iron ore mined at Lal Lal
1858 - Brown coal and kaolin clay discovered. Kaolin clay sent to England for fine china.
1861 - Original water tower built to service the Geelong/Ballarat railway line.
1862 - Brickwork's opened - Knights
1874 - Inaugural New Years Day race meeting held
1875 - Special railway line built going to the racecourse
1880 - First locally built blast furnace was lit at Lal Lal.
1884 - Branch tramway opened from open cut coal mine siding to iron mine
1890 - Original Lal Lal Falls Hotel operating
1923 - Lal Lal Falls Hotel rebuilt after being destroyed by fire - originally the Railway Hotel

Lal Lal Racecourse was the only racecourse in Victoria to have a railway line running to it.

Lal Lal Racecourse still holds the record for the highest attendance at a country race meeting - 1937: 32,000.

How to find Lal Lal

Use the interactive map below to locate where we are and to plan your route before you leave.



Use the arrow buttons to scroll north, east, south or west.
Use the plus button to zoom in & the minus button to zoom out.
Use the Map, Satellite & Hybrid buttons to toggle between the different map views.