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Located within the Ararat Botanic Gardens is an awesome lake, playground, barbeque facilities, toilets, fernery....the list goes on and on.

The gardens are beautiful, and so tranquil. Garden seats are situated so you can take in the view of the lake, and also rest after your walk around the gardens.

The children's playground is equipped with a sunshade and is also one of the all access playgrounds so that children of varying abilities are able to access and play on the equipment.

The small Chinese style bridge extends across the lake, taking you to a small island that is fun to explore no matter what your age.

The fernery, hasn't any water running, but I can imagine it would have been magnificent in it's time.

All in all, a lovely place to have lunch with friends, or just run around and enjoy yourself.

Small and dingy, this shop may contain goodies, but you'll need to search for them. We came in fifteen minutes before closing time, and they were already closing up for the night. So my advice is to go earlier, when you might be made to feel more welcome, and less of a disturbance to their nightly routine.

The range of clothing, crockery and children's toys is much smaller than the other opportunity shops in Ararat, and there is no furniture here either.

The main thing is that all the profits go back to the community, so do give it a go, you just never know what you might find on the day.

A small store, this well air conditioned shop contains several racks of clothing marked down to one dollar - which is great value! The racks are stocked with clothing for men and women, and a smaller rack for children's clothing.

The books are well priced, and there is a small collection of children's toys available. Not an extensive range of knickknacks or crockery, and no furniture either.

Still a good place to duck in and see what they have, and everything you do spend does go to a worthwhile cause.

Like walking into the Tardis, this opportunity shop is larger on the inside than the outside. Packed full of stuff, this place will take you hours to work through properly.

Racks, and racks of clothing, for men, women and children line most of one side, while furniture, toys, cushions, crockery and other stuff, fill the other side of this shed.

Bargains exist here, you've just got to have the patience to wade through it. The service provider was cheerful and helpful.

Cheap prices too.

The Beaufort Op shop is full of clothes, toys, household goods, and books. It was very busy when we went, and had brought out a special rack full of unusual clothes for the folk who were on their way to the Rainbow festival.

The range of goods was on the expensive side, and books were starting at $3 each for paperbacks. There wasn't a large range of children's toys or clothes (maybe moved out of the way for the rack of special clothing??).

The service providers were cheerful and helpful, and the store was clean and neat.

After failing to find the part that was needed at Bunnings, we decided to give Jaycar a go. So we arrived at the small store, with hopes of finding the parts, and with the help of the customer service officer we did. The advice was given in a non patronising way, and also other options for solving our problem were given.

The store stocks those hard to find parts - for fixing electronic, and telephonic problems. They are also cheaper then Bunnings on a range of other items that I priced while in the store too. They had a range of stock that Dick Smith would have stocked in years gone by, but have now fallen by the wayside. (As Dick Smith has positioned itself more as a retailer rather than as servicing the needs of the electronic savvy consumer).

There was a range of gimmicky toys for children and teenagers who want to build their own solar powered robots. Some very interesting packs that you can buy where you build up the layers of teeth and skin. (All of which entertained my child while I was able to keep asking questions and buying).

I'd recommend this if you've asked at Bunnings, and found they haven't got what you want in stock, or if you want more specialist help or products.

M.A.D.E is a small Museum dedicated to democracy, specifically the Australian version. Located within M.A.D.E. are plenty of touchscreens to help explore the development of democracy, the Eureka flag (which was moved to this location after years at the local Art Gallery), a design your own flag (excellent for those of us with school age children) and some inspiring speeches from great leaders that are played continuously in a small area.

There is a shop and café - which serves soy chai, and plenty of yummy biscuits and sandwiches too.

The attendants are helpful and the place is child friendly - with a change room if you do need that.

There is a large grassed area outside the Café which is very useful for running and rolling on - if you're needing to let off steam or you're young enough to want to do that on a hot day.

The Museum offers free entry to Ballarat residents, and has a range of prices for other members of the community. A mailing list is available so you can stay abreast of current exhibitions too.

Now this is the salvage yard you need to visit before you start your renovations. This place is huge, but also extremely orderly and well kept. There are endless doors - especially some beautiful leadlight ones, more windows and light fittings for the serious period renovator.

There are reclaimed wooden floorboards - the old fashioned 150mm type that are hard to find in the new hardware stores.

If you're after a certain item, ring ahead and check to see if they stock it - or make the day of it, with lunch in Dunolly and a wander around a truly impressive Salvage yard.

Friendly service, coupled with some of the largest servings of food that I've ever seen, made lunch at the Royal a pleasure.

The food served was extremely generous in portion size, with the steak being one of the largest I've ever seen. Their extensive chicken parma menu provided lots of choices, and the children's menu had meals including a drink or a dessert for a mere ten dollars.

The service was friendly and very polite. The Royal is a place I'll be going back to when next I'm in Dunolly.