Ballarat ghost town is an unincorporated community in Inyo County, California. It lies at an elevation of 1079 feet in the Panamint Valley. It was founded in 1897 as a supply point for the mines in the canyons of the Panamint Range. A quarter-mile to the south is Post Office Springs, a reliable water source used since the 1850s by prospectors and desert wanderers. George Riggins, a young immigrant from Australia, gave Ballarat its name when he proposed it should be named for Ballarat, Victoria, in the heart of Australia’s gold country.
