ation is an industry based non-profit, membership organisation representing the city's tourism industry.
Manufacturing
According to the 2006 Australian Census, manufacturing is Ballarat's third largest employment sector, accounting for 14.8% of all workers.
Ballarat attracts investment from several international manufacturers. The Australian headquarters of Mars, Incorporated was established in Ballarat in 1979 with the main Ballarat factory producing Mars bars for the Australian market. McCain Foods Limited Australian headquarters was established in Ballarat in 1970 and the company continues to expand its operations. The Ballarat North Workshops is a major manufacturer of public transportation products with current investment from Alstom.
Ballarat also has a large number of home grown companies producing textiles, general industrial engineering, food products, brick and tiles, building components, prefabricated housing components and automotive components. Brewing was once a largescale operation in the with many large businesses including the public company Phoenix Brewery and although largescale brewing has ceased, the city retains a substantial microbrewery industry.
Primary Industry
As a goldrush boomtown, Ballarat began as a centre of primary industry. Thought gold no longer plays a pivotal role in the economy of the city, gold mining continues to the present date on a smaller scale with a main mine operating. There are still thought to be large, undiscovered gold reserves in the Ballarat region, with investigations being made by local and national companies to extract potentially as much gold as the Gold Rush days in the mid-1800s. Lihir Gold invested in Ballarat Goldfields in 2006 however downscaled its operations in 2009 due to the expense of extraction before selling its stake in 2010 to Castlemaine Goldfields. Along with gold, lignite (coal), kaolin (clay) and iron ore have also been mined in the Ballarat
