The City of Ballarat respects the privacy of its staff and does not comment on individual employment matters.
The City of Ballarat employs a full-time heritage advisor who offers expert technical and architectural advice to residents who wish to restore, renovate or extend heritage-listed properties
In addition, the City has access to a panel of heritage experts to assist with heritage matters when required.
There has been no change to permanent staffing within the heritage team for several years.
Temporary positions are created at busy times of the year for new applications.
Depending on the types of development applications and the projects being dealt with, the City may seek additional assistance from people with specialist skills in Heritage Policy, Architecture and Conservation Architecture on an as-needs basis. This has been the case for many years - and there is no change.
We advise and encourage people seeking to make changes to any heritage listed property to contact the Statutory Planning Administration team in the first instance, to direct their enquiry.
The City always encourages people considering changes to a heritage property to seek their own independent advice as early on in their project as possible.
We direct people to the Consultants list provided by Heritage Victoria (https://www.heritage.vic.gov.au/consultants-directory) and to our list of past heritage award nominees and winners which includes Ballarat-based trades and specialists.
Specialist heritage advice from the City of Ballarat, free of charge, is made available for specific projects on an as-needs basis – this continues to be the case.
Over recent years Council has expanded the planning specific – (free) heritage support services offered to the community to include a Heritage Outreach Service. This service works with building owners to research, design and support the reinstatement of heritage features and verandahs on listed properties.
A range of grants are also available for protection and renewal of heritage listed properties.