Built between November 1953 and August, 1956 and designed by the architects Coburn and Murphy. Herbert Coburn was also a town councillor and was mayor of Ballarat 1945-6. The design, austere Classical Revival Style may have been inspired by the Heidelberg Town Hall of 1939. The Hall was built by local firm, W.B. Trahar and was the first steel-framed building outside Melbourne. The enormous quantity of bricks needed for the construction were also supplied by a local firm, Selkirk's.
Architecturally significant as the onle example of a Moderne functionalist civic building in the Stripped Classical Style erected in Victoria in the 1950's., and as the first example of a steel-framed building erected outside Melbourne. It is socially significant as a centre of cultural life in Ballarat.