Lake Wendouree, Victoria

Lake Wendouree is a suburb of Ballarat, Victoria, Australia located immediately west of the Ballarat central business district. It encompasses the man-made recreational lake Lake Wendouree, after which it is named. At the 2016 census, Lake Wendouree had a population of 2,882.Lake Wendouree is home to many of the city's wealthiest residents and much of its old money. It has the highest median value in the Ballarat urban area ($610,000). The suburb also holds the record for the highest declared price for a (non-subdivision) residential property sale in Ballarat - $1.5 million and has highest percentage of home ownership in Ballarat.Lake Wendouree is bordered by the Ballarat railway line to the north, Drummond Street North and Lexton Street to the east, Mair and Sturt Streets to the south, and Gillies Street to the west.HistoryThe area was established in the 1870s. As the lake became a recreational landmark during the land boom of the Victorian era which followed the Victorian gold rush days the area became popular with the city's wealthy. Led by the bluestone gothic Bishop's palace (1876) and later the entrepreneur William Bailey (1883), many large mansions and impressive homes were established in the area close to the lake.The Electric Supply Company of Victoria built a bluestone power station at the corner of Ripon Street and Wendouree Parade in 1901 to replace Ballarat's horse-drawn tramways with a new electric system.Despite the decline in Ballarat's wealth, the march of large expensive homes toward the shores of the lake continued well into the 1920s.