FORMER EXCHANGE HOTEL SITE

 The area is first mapped as allotment 1 and 2 of Section E in detail in the 1857 Revised Town Plan of Block A.B. C. D. The site was likely occupied prior as part of the first phase of the Ballarat Main Street development. A store Historical archaeological site card 9 operated on allotment 1 until c.1865, however the site was predominantly occupied by the Exchange Hotel. The premises likely went through two to three stages of development beginning as a timber structure and developing into a bricked ‘fireproof structure in the 1860s-1870. The exchange hotel closed in 1914, however features are still present on the 1923 Ballarat Sewerage Plan showing a cellar, smaller outbuildings and four cesspits to the south of the site. 

 The site is of historical and archaeological significance. 

 The site is of historical significance as the location of an early commercial and residential property and hotel during the years of the Victorian gold rush. The later nineteenth century shows the development and likely expansion of the hotel that closed in 1914. The site is of archaeological significance due to its potential to contain artefacts, deposits and features that relate to the establishment of commercial operations in the gold rush, and later 19th-century activities.