Loreto College is a Roman Catholic secondary school for girls in Ballarat, Victoria, Australia. It is one of many Loreto schools distributed over the world. The school was founded in 1875 by the Loreto Sisters as their first foundation in Australia. Since then it has become one of seven sister schools located in all Australian state capitals. The school has many historical buildings and much heritage that remains present to this day. From 1978 to 2006 Loreto College, Ballarat was on two sites. Years 7 and 8 students were situated at the smaller Dawson Street site which provided students a transitional adjustment from primary school into secondary school. The Sturt Street site, once known as Mary's Mount, was home to students in Years 9 to 12. Loreto College, Ballarat however changed its operations in 2006 with the merging of the the Dawson Street campus with the historical Sturt Street campus after the construction of the Mary Ward Centre at the Sturt Street campus. This allowed all year levels from 7-12 to be located on one site in Ballarat.