reet features prominently in national television advertisement advertisements including the Gold Lion award (Cannes Lions International Advertising Festival) and Australasian Writers and Art Directors Association award winning "The Regulars" (2009) for Victoria Bitter and "What About Me" (2010) Safe Driver Rewards campaign for AAMI. The 2012 television series The Doctor Blake Mysteries was filmed and set in Ballarat.
Ballarat has inspired many visual artists, with several celebrated works depicting the city. In the Australian Collection of the Ballarat Art Gallery are some of Eugene von Guerard's works documenting the city's establishment as a gold digging settlement, Albert Henry Fullwood's depictions of boom era streetscapes and Knut Bull's View of Ballarat Across Lake Wendouree. Several other artists have painted depictions of historic events such as the Eureka Stockade.
Ballarat also features prominently in literature and fiction, including The Boscombe Valley Mystery (1891) from The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes by Arthur Conan Doyle, the King Billy of Ballarat and Other Stories (1892) by Morley Roberts, The Fortunes of Richard Mahony (1917) by Henry Handel Richardson, Murder on the Ballarat Train (1993) by Kerry Greenwood, Illywhacker by Peter Carey (1985) and The Supply Party by Martin Edward (2009).
The song Ballarat the Fair, recorded by Baritone Robert Nicholson in 1929, was inspired by Ballarat: "Oh, Ballarat the beautiful / Oh, Ballarat the fair."
The town of Ballarat, California is named after Ballarat.
Two ships of the Royal Australian Navy have been named HMAS Ballarat after the city, HMAS Ballarat (J184) and HMAS Ballarat (FFH 155).
Popular nicknames used by locals for the city include "The 'Rat", a shortened version of the name derived from the brown rat, the name and symbol was further popularised by Rebellion Brewery's The Rat beer. Another enduring nickname is Golden City which dates back to the gold
