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A recent China trip by Ballarat Mayor Cr Samantha McIntosh has yielded significant outcomes for the Central Victorian Goldfields World Heritage listing bid.

Cr McIntosh was asked to speak at Third Regional Conference of the Organisation of World Heritage Cities Asia-Pacific in Suzhou, China last week.

As a result of the trip:

Ballarat has been asked to submit an expression of interest to host an event as part of the International ICOMOS General Assembly being held in Sydney in 2020. ICOMOS is the global heritage peak body and the key World Heritage listing advisory and assessment body This offer includes a “flying squad” of experts to come to the Central Victorian Goldfields region to assess and provide advice on the World Heritage listing bid’s strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats An upcoming visit to Ballarat by International Institute for the Inclusive Museum Executive Director Professor Amareswar Gala, who has extensive experience with the HUL approach, World Heritage listings and heritage trades training programs A meeting with Simone Ricca, who manages the UNESCO HUL pilot program, allowed Cr McIntosh to outline the support Ballarat requires from this organisation into the future Richard Mackay from Australia ICOMOS provided expert advice to Ballarat on its World Heritage listing bid and offered to assist with the bid process, as he is one of the ICOMOS World Heritage assessors, including connecting the project partners to people who can obtain Australian Research Council grants Professor Ana Pereira Roders from Delft University, Netherlands, who attended the conference, will be in Ballarat for the 2019 Heritage Weekend and, with the help of the City of Ballarat, will be able to work towards a cooperating agreement with Federation University Australia’s Collaborative Research Centre for Australian History Cr McIntosh built strong relationships with several cities, including fellow HUL pilot city Levuka, Fiji, UNESCO Creative City Vienna and Chinese economic powerhouse and host city Suzhou.

Cr McIntosh said the trip was extremely beneficial for the Central Victorian Goldfields World Heritage listing bid.

“Having experts of the calibre of Professor Amareswar Gala and Richard Mackay offer to help assess and advise on our bid will be invaluable to us,” Cr McIntosh said.

“As part of the conference I was able to make some really fantastic connections that will hopefully help us progress our bid immeasurably.”