Eisteddfods, the Welsh festival of music and singing, poetry and recitation, were held by Welsh miners at Castlemaine, Victoria, with its nearby goldfields of Mount Alexander and Forest Creek, on Christmas Day 1854.
[2] Its successors were: (None held 1888, 1890, 1891) This appears to have been the last of the old-time eisteddfau, organised and performed by Welsh families for an audience of their own nationality, to be held in Ballarat to celebrate either Christmas or St David's Day.
In 1902 the South Street Society adopted the name "Eisteddfod" for their long-running and highly successful competitions, and that may have spurred some descendants of Welsh miners in the old mining town of Sebastopol[23] (now an outer suburb of Ballarat) to reclaim the tradition.
In 1906 a Cambrian (ie Welsh) Society was formed at Sebastopol by Steve T. Jones (died 1906)[24] and Nicholas Howell (died 1922)[25] In 1907 they held their first musical and elocutionary competitions, held around St David's Day at the Sebastopol Town Hall.
[26] The competitions continued to 1926, when their 20th annual eisteddfod was held over a week, and was reportedly a success,[27] but appears to have been the last.