and nearby Lal Lal however many of the resource deposits have since been exhausted.
The outskirts of Ballarat are used for agriculture including animal husbandry and wine growing. The Ballarat Livestock Selling Centre is the largest cattle exchange in regional Victoria. The Ballarat Agricultural and Pastoral Society formed in 1856 and has run the Ballarat Show annually each November at the Ballarat Showgrounds since 1859.
Forestry occurs in nearby state forests as well as on a small scale in the urban area along the Canadian Valley around the suburbs of Mt Clear and Mt Helen areas with pine plantations and Sawmill operations.
Renewable energy
The Ballarat region has a rapidly growing renewable energy industry, in particular due to its abundant wind energy, attracting significant investment and generating revenue for local landholders and local councils. The region is also a source of bountiful geothermal energy, solar power and biomass although to date, only its wind, solar and hydroelectricity has been harvested commercially. All local commercially produced electricity is sent to the National Electricity Market.
Wind energy is generated by local wind farms. The Waubra Wind Farm, completed in 2009 (35 km W � 192 MW, 128 turbines) is capable of producing the equivalent amount of electricity to the collective consumption of all households in the city. Also nearby is the first community-owned wind farm in Australia, the Hepburn Wind Project at Leonards Hill (24 km NE � 4MW, 2 turbines) which produces the equivalent amount of electricity used by the town of Daylesford. Proposed facilities with planning approval including Origin Energy's Stockyard Hill wind farm (35 km W � 41 MW, 157 turbines), and FutureWind's Chepstowe wind farm (30 km W � 6 MW, 3 turbines). In addition, WestWind Energy Pty Ltd has proposed large projects including the Moorabool Wind Project at Mount Egerton and Ballan (23 km E � 330MW, 107 turbines)
