News Alert |

City of Ballarat Mayor Cr Samantha McIntosh has presented at the Third Regional Conference of the Organisation of World Heritage Cities Asia-Pacific in Suzhou, China. 

Cr McIntosh outlined Ballarat’s tourism strengths, including being voted number five in Australia’s top 10 tourism destinations.

She also spoke about the wide scope of Ballarat’s heritage, from the traditional owners who are part of the oldest living civilization on earth to our urban heritage, founded on the global gold rush.

The Mayor put forward the World Heritage listing bid for the Central Victorian Goldfields region, using a video of Sovereign Hill to help illustrate the goldfields significance.

Cr McIntosh also:  

Told participants about the challenges facing Ballarat such as our population growth Promoted Ballarat’s globally recognised work through the UNESCO Historic Urban Landscape, which is a feature of this conference, and being a Council of Europe Intercultural City Outlined how Ballarat’s citizens are helping to shape Ballarat’s future, with local businesses linking into our city’s heritage and community-driven planning projects underway Promoted the Creative Cities Strategy, Live Music Strategy, Heritage Plan and how they tie Ballarat’s future to Ballarat’s authentic heritage and Showcased White Night Ballarat The Mayor spoke on how Ballarat has been implementing UNESCO’s HUL approach and how it has changed city management practices, particularly in enabling local people to guide the city’s future.

Cr McIntosh also asked the UNESCO experts how World Heritage listing works in the local context and, particularly, if the HUL approach works for management of World Heritage listings.

The UNESCO representative congratulated the Mayor on the city’s work and her presentation about Ballarat. Their response was that the HUL is integrated into UNESCO’s World Heritage guidelines and Ballarat’s work in this area aligns completely with what UNESCO require for management of World Heritage sites.