Fortuna Villa is a mansion near Bendigo in Victoria, Australia. It was first built in 1855 by Theodore Ballerstadt, who opened the first quartz crushing gold mine in the area. The area proved to have a lot of gold and this led to a gold rush to the area, at the time there where numerous gold rushes taking place throughout Victoria. As Ballerstadt expanded his gold mines he started renovating his home the Fortuna Villa, and it went from being a large but modest house, to a mansion that is seen today. A Lookout tower was constructed by the kitchen so that the businessman could look out over the gold fields he owned.