Talbot

Once a chaos of gold diggers, dozens of stores and businesses and, it is said, around 100 pubs and grog shanties in the 1850's, Today Talbot, 40 minutes drive north-west of Ballarat, is a sleepy hamlet with a population of around 300.

A stroll around Talbot reveals all sorts of colonial treasures like Victoria's oldest functioning Post Office; the Talbot Museum (open Sundays), which is housed in the former primitive Methodist Church; Public Library; Town Hall; classic old Banks; historic former Court House, and Courthouse Hotel, built in 1859.

Talbot's old streets come to life on the third Sunday of each month when more than 2,000 people hit the town for the Talbot Farmers' Market, regarded as one of Victoria's finest.