Mayors Message Thursday 13 October 2022

Last week it was a pleasure to see some of Ballarat’s hard working senior members acknowledged for their outstanding work at the Ballarat Senior of the Year Awards.  

After a two-year absence of the event, it was great to be back in the town hall with some outstanding finalists across four categories from which the Ballarat Senior of the Year Award recipient was also selected.  

The Ageing Well Award went to Allan McKinnon, the Equity Diversity and Inclusion Award went to Ugo Lo lacono, the Healthy and Active Living Award went to Ron King and the Volunteer Award went to John Donaldson.  

This year’s Ballarat Senior of the Year Award went to Ugo Lo lacono. 

Congratulations to all our senior award winners and the many other senior members who contribute so much to our community.  

Ballarat has recently been privileged to host both the three-day 2022 Australian Regional Tourism Convention and the inaugural one-day National Agritourism Conference.  Tourism plays a huge role in our city’s economy and the opportunity to host such an event will provide significant inspiration for local tourism business operators as the forums share much invaluable industry knowledge. The event is also a great opportunity to showcase Ballarat to some of the leading national industry champions.  

Still on tourism in the last week we also saw the release of a report outlining the significant economic benefits of achieving a UNESCO World Heritage listing for the Central Victorian Goldfields.   

A World Heritage listing is a globally recognised mark of quality and would provide the Central Victorian Goldfields region with an excellent accredited tourism product. 

It is expected the findings of the report will drive the development of new visitor journeys and accommodation across the region to support not only a future listing but also the Victoria 2026 Commonwealth Games.   

Finally this week, a huge thank you to the Ballarat community for responding to the Ballarat Animal Shelter call out for dog adoption. I know there will be a lot of wagging tales out there!  

Mayor

Daniel Moloney