Boost to Victorian Goldfields World Heritage listing bid

The Victorian Goldfields’ bid to gain a UNESCO World Heritage listing has been significantly boosted by a visit to the Cornwall Heartlands.

City of Ballarat Mayor Samantha McIntosh again met with Heartlands World Heritage Site coordinator Deborah Boden who provided her with information about the world’s leading experts to help with the 13-council bid to secure a Victorian Goldfields heritage listing, tipped to boost the region’s annual economy by $68 million.

Ms Boden also shared invaluable information about the Cornwall heritage listing bid, including how local businesses played an invaluable role in the listing process.

Ms Boden reiterated World Heritage listing will only come with a clear articulation of the Victorian Goldfields’ role in changing the world.

She said the City of Ballarat should consider bringing a delegation of all 13 councils to Cornwall and inviting relevant global experts to the Victorian Goldfields.

The key lesson Cr McIntosh learnt was that the Victorian Goldfields story needs to be told in everyday language.

“The bid also needs to get all parties involved on the same page over how the Victorian Goldfields changed the world,” Cr McIntosh said.

The Cornwall Heartlands were continuously mined for more than 500 years before closing in the late 1990s, with massive job losses, environmental degradation and subsequent low socio-economic conditions for its communities.

The World Heritage Listing has completely regenerated the area and includes a Cornish mining story interpretation centre, which provided Cr McIntosh with many parallels for interpreting the Eureka story through the Eureka Centre.

For example, the Heartlands centre includes a diaspora garden, with the species of plants in each area relating to specific regions shaped and changed by the Cornish mining story.

More than 120,000 people visit the Heartlands site a year, with lessons for Ballarat in the need to have a clear, detailed plan of what regeneration opportunities are being sought from the listing.

The Heartlands site is a living heritage site rather than a museum, with Ms Boden also hopeful the mine will reopen in the next few years using new technology.

Cr McIntosh said this has helped allay fears mining may not be allowed in the Victorian Goldfields due to a heritage listing.

Cr McIntosh asked how the creative sector contributed to the Heartlands project, outlining Ballarat’s Creative City Strategy currently in development.

Ms Boden said they worked closely with the creative sector who she said: “are really good at taking an idea and communicating it”.

For example, the Cornwall Council put 50,000 pounds into a fund and asked artists to pitch for ways to bring the Cornish mining story to life.

It resulted in a funding influx and a five-month creative festival where the star attraction was a fivestorey high, mechanical Cornish miner, which drew 150,000 visitors over its 11-day Cornwall tour.

The festival went viral and their web monitoring service stopped counting at 112 million global hits.

The mechanical miner now tours the world, with Ms Boden offering to help contact the artists involved if Ballarat would like it to visit.