Editing Ballarat (section)

=== Prehistory and European settlement ===
The Ballarat region was first populated by the [[Wathaurong|Wadawurrung]] people, an [[Indigenous Australian]] people.<ref name="history">{{cite web|title=Ballarat's Indigenous Heritage|url=http://sheducationcom.ascetinteractive.biz/uploads//SovHill%20indigenousheritage%20notes%20ss1.pdf|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110706144302/http://sheducationcom.ascetinteractive.biz/uploads//SovHill%20indigenousheritage%20notes%20ss1.pdf|archive-date=6 July 2011|work=Sovereign Hill Education|access-date=19 August 2010}}</ref> The first Europeans to sight the area were an August 1837 party of six men, including [[Thomas Livingstone Learmonth]] and Henry Anderson, who scaled [[Mount Buninyong]]. Some of this party set off again in January 1838, this time with others including Thomas' brother Somerville Learmonth and William Cross Yuille and his cousin Archibald Buchanan Yuille.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Withers|first=William Bramwell|url=https://archive.org/details/historyofballara00with/page/n26/mode/1up|title=The history of Ballarat, from the first pastoral settlement to the present time|publisher=F. W. Niven and co.|year=1887|edition=2nd|location=Ballarat|pages=1–3|language=EN}}</ref>

The Yuille cousins<ref>{{Cite news|date=1934-07-14|title=ARCHIBALD YUILLE AND BALLARAT|work=Argus|url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article10963390|access-date=2023-05-27}}</ref> arrived in 1838 and took up a {{convert|10000|acre|ha|adj=on}} sheep run at Ballarat.<ref>{{Citation|last=Hone|first=J. Ann|title=Yuille, William Cross (1819–1894)|url=https://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/yuille-william-cross-4909|work=Australian Dictionary of Biography|access-date=2023-05-27|place=Canberra|publisher=National Centre of Biography, Australian National University|language=en}}</ref> The first houses were built near Woolshed Creek (Sebastopol) by Henry Anderson and taken over by the Yuilles.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Withers|first=William Bramwell|url=https://archive.org/details/historyofballara00with/page/n26/mode/1up|title=The history of Ballarat, from the first pastoral settlement to the present time|publisher=F. W. Niven and co.|year=1887|edition=2nd|location=Ballarat|pages=3–5}}</ref> William Yuille established a hut on the northern edge of the swamp which would be called Yuille's Swamp, later Lake Wendouree.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Lake Wendouree|url=https://vhd.heritagecouncil.vic.gov.au/places/208835|access-date=28 May 2023|website=Victorian Heritage Database}}</ref> Archibald Yuille named his property "Ballaarat", from the local [[Wathaurong]] [[Indigenous Australian|Aboriginal]] words, ''balla'' and ''arat'', meaning a camping or 'resting place', with the word 'balla' meaning bent elbow.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Heritage {{!}} City of Ballarat|url=https://www.ballarat.vic.gov.au/city/strategic-planning/heritage|access-date=2023-05-27|website=ballarat.vic.gov.au}}</ref> Both 'Ballaarat' and 'Ballarat' were used interchangeably until the present spelling was officially adopted by the City of Ballarat in 1994, when the city amalgamated with surrounding local government areas.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Ballarat history|url=https://www.ballaratgenealogy.org.au/ballarat-history|access-date=2023-05-27|website=ballaratgenealogy.org.au}}</ref>