Second owners in 122 years: why this family moved from Lydiard Street to Ascot

"We drove past this house and Mum said 'I want to buy this house'," Hugo said.

The Palm family said goodbye to their home in Lydiard Street in Ballarat Central and moved into the 122-year-old Victorian property on May 10.

Ascot is a tiny hamlet just north of Ballarat - the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) data shows far more people have left Ascot over years than have moved in, and the population has declined to 93 in 2021 in the area.

The four-bedroom house, with three sheds, sits on a 8,068-square-metre block.

Meaghan Palm said they had "no plan to move" but the property ticked too many of the boxes for what they wanted.

"We are both originally from the country and love the space, the community and the environment," she said.

Growing up in Woodend, Meaghan said in her childhood, she and her sister used all the bits and pieces to build their own little cubby houses and kitchens in their neighbour's sheds.

"These things are worth a mint these days," she said.

The night after they moved in, the family captured pictures of the most powerful geomagnetic storms in about 20 years.

"We saw the aurora - really fantastic," she said.

Daniel Palm said another thing that drew them to the house was the character as "second owners in 122 years".

"[It's] astounding when you talk to the family about their memories of family history," he said.

Daniel said the McGrath family lived in the house since 1902, and the worn sheds outside were Ascot's original blacksmith shop.

"A single man started working [in the sheds] in the 1860s - he had a cottage out the back and started doing basic blacksmithing here," he said.

"And then they went to building wagons. There was a wagon restored at Sovereign Hill. That was built by McGrath family.

"They used to manufacture here - book wagons, horse wagons and drays.

"They did all of the forging here. They shaped the tires and the rims. They drilled the holes in them. They also produced horseshoes - we found a couple of horseshoes."

Walking in the Victorian house, the condition is in stark contrast to the dilapidated sheds.

"It is 122 years old. The nice, good condition is very rare," Daniel said.

"They obviously made this room [the living room] modern American in the 1930s."

In a small timber-lined room, a yellowed first aid kit hangs on the wall with things from last century.

Daniel said the building was also Ascot's post office in the late 1960s.

"The history of the place is absolutely beautiful," he said.

"We want to bring it back to the Victorian era, to 1902, with some modern amenities, but ultimately capture all of that history."

Daniel said they had got in touch with the council and would post the story of the property on their social media account @the_old_blacksmiths_at_ascot.