News Alert |

Mayor Samantha McIntosh will return to Ballarat this week with plenty of new ideas to further develop our historic city.

She also returns with new beneficial relationships with cities from around the world after coming together with global leaders over the weekend for the 16th World League of Historical Cities.

The World Conference of Historical Cities took place in Bursa between 7-9 September, with global leaders discussing:  

The impact of globalisation on culture and way of living Economic development models and methods focussing on tourism in historical cities The role of local government to maintain cultural diversity and identity in a globalising world Efforts of historical cities in using new communication tools including social media in a global society. 

As part of the conference this year, the City of Ballarat also participated in the League of Historical Cities Board of Directors meeting where the city was heavily promoted.

   Cr McIntosh said it was brilliant to have Ballarat on the world stage, and genuinely being looked to as a global leader.

She added Ballarat is, in so many ways, so far ahead of most of the rest of the world, it just is not realised or celebrated enough.

During the conference and board meeting a number of significant opportunities arose for Ballarat, including:

1. Ballarat has been successfully re-elected as a World League of Historic Cities board member for another four-year term (2018 – 2022). This means Ballarat continues to represent the Asia Pacific Region on the seven-member board, a board which now manages the league of 116 historic cities from 65 countries and regions of the world.  

2. Cr McIntosh addressed the conference delegation, heavily promoting Ballarat and its expertise in historic city innovation. Representatives from Bad Ischl, Austria were so impressed they indicated they would like to establish a digital-city relationship with Ballarat to share data and ideas. City of Ballarat Officers will now follow this up with the Austrian representatives.

3. A number of useful case studies highlighted during the conference will now be explored in Ballarat, including:

The use of social media influencers to promote heritage cities. Bursa, Turkey spent the same money they usually would on an exhibition (which would generate 200-300 visitors) on social media influencers to visit and create videos. This resulted in leveraging 200,000 people.  “Gamification” and the use of digital gaming to drive visitation and increase history understanding from new demographics. This has been very successful in Konya, Turkey. Representatives from Ljubljana, Slovenia highlighted useful learnings on how to unite all players in the tourism space to leverage economic, social and cultural benefits.

4.  Ballarat’s 10 young artists who won the Colourful Touch to History painting competition in August had their work on display at an art exhibition in Bursa. Their artwork showcased Ballarat to an international audience and was widely received. The Mayor of Bursa, Alinur Aktas has sent back gifts for each of the young artists.

5. During conference breaks Cr McIntosh had a number of detailed discussions with many global players, including Şenol Dülger, Director of the Panorama 1326 Bursa Museum. She discussed with him how the new education centre in Bursa tells the story of the foundation of the Ottoman Empire. The museum, which will officially open in a month, includes the largest panoramic dome in the world, and will also act as a community hub with cafes, conference rooms and a library also forming part of the ‘green’ building. Cr McIntosh also used this opportunity to discuss the Eureka Centre, and opportunities to better tell the Eureka story.

6.  Cr McIntosh met with Dr Rasool Vatandoust – former ICOMOS site assessor for World Heritage Significance – who has recently successfully listed three sites in Iran on the World Heritage List. Dr Vatandoust provided extensive insight into the process and key learnings and has provided the contact details of relevant international ICOMOS Board Members who Ballarat should speak to regarding the Victorian Goldfields bid.  

7. Cr McIntosh also spoke with Hannes Heide – Mayor of Bad Ischl, Austria about tourism and economic benefits of the League of Historic Cities, Daisaku Kadokawa – Mayor Kyoto, on building resilience in local communities hit by natural disasters and Lodvigova Evgeniya – Vice Mayor Kazan, Russia on women in leadership roles in local government.

8. The conference was closed with the signing of the Bursa Declaration, which outlined three key obligations for signatories, including Ballarat:

“We will enhance initiatives for restoring and preserving our rich historical heritage We will increase awareness of residents, tourists and visitors on cultural and historical values of tangible and intangible heritage in order to make our initiatives for restoration and preservation sustainable We tied together by the very fact of being historical cities which we take pride in, pursue endeavour to constantly promote our friendship beyond national frontiers and cooperate in daily exchanges to make our pride in local communities more sustainable and strengthened, and to develop initiatives to realise world peace for all human beings.”

Cr McIntosh will now fly back to Australia, in economy, in time to attend Wednesday night’s Council Meeting.

Upon her return, an easy-to-read document on the knowledge gained and next steps will be developed for Ballarat residents to access.

This will be available online at news.ballarat.vic.gov.au following the October Council Meeting and at the Customer Service Centre at The Phoenix, 25 Armstrong Street South.