The World Institute of Training and Research for the Asia Pacific Region’s Vice Director, Dr Ron van Oers, visited Ballarat in September to sign an agreement with the City of Ballarat.
The agreement will ensure world-wide recognition of the innovative approach to the Historic Urban Landscape being piloted in Ballarat.
The City of Ballarat signed an Agreement on Strategic Cooperation concerning the implementation of UNESCO’s Recommendation on the Historic Urban Landscape (HUL) with the World Heritage Institute of Training and Research for the Asia Pacific Region (WHI-TRAP).
An International Symposium was held on September 27 to discuss and debate the Historic Urban Landscape approach for Ballarat with a range of organisations, Ballarat Heritage Advisory Committee members, University representatives and Ballarat Imagine Community Consultation Group members.
Earlier this year Ballarat City Council endorsed a report outlining the partnership with WHI-TRAP. UNESCO’s HUL approach recommends a new way of seeing and managing historic cities by understanding the range of values, pressures and expectations that historic cities face.
It improves on traditional conservation approaches by ensuring that there is a holistic approach to heritage management and that there is an understanding that historic cities do, and will always continue to, evolve and change.
At the same time it ensures any change that may adversely impact those things that make a historic city unique, valued by communities and sustainable into the future is controlled and managed. It does this in a fully integrated, community-led, locally relevant and realistic way.
The agreement opens up exciting collaboration opportunities with other historic cities taking part in the pilot program around the world.
The HUL approach will guide the development of Today Tomorrow Together: The Ballarat Strategy.
