Rebranded, rebuilt & ready to shine. A tourism site that blends strategic storytelling with globally award-winning user experience.
The Request
The City of Ballarat came to us with a clear challenge and a lot of ambition: reimagine their tourism website as part of a major regional rebrand.
The Result
The new Visit Ballarat website is lightning-fast, fully mobile-first and packed with tools that make it a genuine asset for both users and the tourism team. It showcases the region’s new visual identity with confidence and consistency, and it’s designed to grow with Ballarat’s evolving needs.
This project was all about finding the sweet spot where brand storytelling meets functionality, and smart technology meets ease of use.
The City of Ballarat didn’t just want a nice-looking site. It needed to work hard behind the scenes too, supporting visitors, locals and the in-house marketing team equally well.
This wasn’t about ticking boxes. It had to be exciting, intuitive and unmistakably Ballarat. It needed to tell the region’s story in a way that made people want to explore it. And for the internal team, it had to be easy to manage, flexible and fast to update without relying on developers.
Rebranded, rebuilt & ready to shine.
The new Ballarat brand is expressed clearly throughout the experience, from typography and colour to layout and motion. It’s bold, confident and distinctly local.
Built for discovery, built for people
Using a dynamic ATDW data integration, the site pulls in live listings for events and local businesses. This keeps content fresh and accurate without needing constant manual updates.
Alongside this, we built a suite of custom content tools that allow the marketing team to create on-brand pages, campaigns and itineraries with complete freedom. No coding needed, no design compromise.
Personalised itineraries (and yep, you can print them too)
Users can plan their trips by saving listings and building day-by-day itineraries. When they’re ready, they can share them or generate a clean, print-friendly PDF. It’s simple, helpful and genuinely useful.
A premium mobile experience
This is not a stripped-back version of the site. The full experience has been carefully optimised for mobile, with clean navigation, fast loading and interactions that work beautifully on smaller screens. Whether planning from the couch or walking the streets of Ballarat, the experience delivers.
Fast, accessible & future-ready
The site meets high-level WCAG accessibility standards and performs at speed thanks to our headless WordPress build. By using open-source tech, the City of Ballarat now has full control and the freedom to scale and adapt the platform over time without being locked into a rigid system.
More than a build, this was a true partnership
We worked closely with the City of Ballarat every step of the way to make sure the website delivered real, lasting value.
Now they’ve got a flexible, high-performing platform that truly does justice to the brand, and the global recognition brings well-earned attention to a region full of stories worth sharing.
We designed a modern, editorial-style website that draws people in & helps them explore naturally. Whether browsing by interest, season or event, the experience is rich, engaging & intuitive.
Brenton Cannizzaro
Director
Avenue
Globally recognised
The new Visit Ballarat website is a globally award-winning digital experience, earning Gold at the IDA: International Design Awards and ‘Best in Show: UX’ at the AWIA Australian Web Awards.
