Mayor's Message - Thursday 2 June

May really has been a busy month and I thought this week it would make for interesting reading to recap on just how diverse life at the City of Ballarat can be in one month.  

The month was led by the release of the City of Ballarat’s Draft Budget, a huge piece of work, with some key line items responding to the public’s number one concern for environmental sustainability and infrastructure development for our growing city.  

As one major piece of work opened another closed with the conclusion of the Inclusive Ballarat Campaign calling for input on how we can create a more inclusive organisation and city. 

In the first week of May we also received the terrific news that our hard work in advocating for a new Ballarat Regional Animal Facility had been rewarded with $11.5 million in funding.  

We saw the Youth Ambassador Program conclude a series of three workshops assisting our young ambassadors to develop management, leadership and communication skills in a worthy investment in our future.   

We gladly accepted a late opportunity to host the Australian Masters Rowing Championship, welcoming hundreds of participants and their followers from around Australia to Ballarat. 

We also received the news that we are again in the Top Tourism Town Awards 2022. In the same week we opened tenders for the Ballarat Airport upgrade, and we also welcomed a new Eureka Centre café operator.  

We celebrated IDAHOBIT day as we acknowledged our community’s stand against LGBTIQA+ discrimination and we acknowledged National Sorry Day and promoted Reconciliation Week’s 2022 ‘Be Brave, Make Change’ theme.   

Add to this our continued regional partnership’s quest to have the Central Victorian Goldfields designated as a World Heritage area, and the return of our award-winning Heritage Festival and one can see it has been a busy, but very productive month.  

Now we look forward to June and especially, our Winter Festival.