Ballarat City

The Christus Rex Pilgrimage begins in the historic city of Ballarat, a place deeply woven into Australia’s Catholic and colonial story. Once a thriving centre of the gold rush, Ballarat’s wide boulevards, stone buildings, and gracious churches speak of a time when faith and public life walked hand in hand.

Pilgrims gather in Ballarat on Thursday evening to prepare for the journey ahead. Check-in takes place at St Patrick’s Cathedral, a magnificent Gothic Revival church, and those staying overnight are accommodated in historic venues around the city. The Ballarat Mechanics’ Institute, founded in 1859, hosts our male pilgrims. With its ornate architecture and enduring civic presence, it is one of the oldest and most significant institutions of its kind in Australia.

As the sun rises on Friday morning, pilgrims begin the day with Holy Mass before setting out on foot. Early in the route, they walk through the Old Ballarat Cemetery, where the early Catholic settlers of the district were laid to rest. This moment invites a deep sense of reflection, reminding us of the communion of saints and the pilgrimage of life and death that all Christians share.

Ballarat offers not only a beautiful and practical starting point, but a profound sense of continuity—linking our modern witness for Christ the King to generations past who lived, built, prayed, and died in the same soil.

From there, the path leads pilgrims out of the city and into the Creswick State Forest, where logging trails wind through eucalypts and native bushland. The contrast between the structured grandeur of Ballarat and the serenity of the forest marks a deepening of the pilgrimage spirit—moving from the civic to the contemplative, from the built world to the beauty of creation.