Suburb Snapshot – Mount Clear

The size of Mount Clear is approximately 9.9 square kilometres and has nine parks covering nearly 9.4 per cent of total area. The population of Mount Clear in 2011 was 2905 people and by the 2016 Census it was 3365, showing growth of 15.8 per cent.

Mount Clear is an outlying suburb of Ballarat, five kilometres south-east of the Ballarat post office. It was probably named as a result of its relatively elevated location being cleared of timber during or soon after the gold rushes.

Mount Clear was part of the Ballarat and Buninyong gold diggings and the first school was opened in 1858.

When the Buninyong Shire was formed in 1864 it met in rented premises in Mount Clear and it built offices there in 1869. The municipal role ended in 1915 when the shire was united with Buninyong borough. Mount Clear then became a rural village until the expansion of Ballarat brought it within range of urban growth.

During the mid-1960s the school’s population grew to about 120 pupils, and in 1970 new classrooms were opened.

Several Ballarat firms acted as subdividers and developers of residential land at Mount Clear during the 1970s and by 1978 it had an estimated population of 2000.

CoreLogic data indicates that the predominant age group in Mount Clear is 20-29 years with households being primarily couples with children and are likely to be repaying $1400 – $1799 per month on mortgage repayments, and in general, people in Mount Clear work in a professional occupation.

In 2011, 64.9 per cent of the homes in Mount Clear were owner-occupied compared with 62 per cent in 2016.

Source: Ballarat Times News Group