HUL Toolkit

I am a City of Ballarat council worker

The HUL approach underpins all City of Ballarat strategies and activities and is relevant across the organisation. For instance, the Ballarat Imagine community listening project that informed the development of the Ballarat Strategy was a HUL initiative developed by Council. Using these tools will ensure your project is informed by our city’s identity and local people’s needs, values and aspirations – leading to better outcomes for your project and create a future for Ballarat that is valued and valuable to everyone.

• To understand Ballarat’s distinctive character, evolution and performance see Understand Ballarat’s distinct identity and Visualise the connections. 
• To discover local people’s priorities for and values about their city see Explore our values and Engage local people 
• To identify Council’s priorities for Ballarat see What are our goals
• To find out more about the HUL approach at the City of Ballarat watch the short video and contact the HUL focal point for your area

Understand Ballarat's distinctive identity

• Discover local research property history in Ballarat with our research guide and find out what our heritage studies tell you about Ballarat’s historic areas in the Ballarat Heritage Database (searchable by property)
• Get the overview of Ballarat’s history, with a timeline spanning pre-contact times to the present day
• Explore our city with the self-guided, historic walking tours outlined on Ballarat Revealed
• Uncover Indigenous perspectives of the gold rush through Hidden Histories: The Wadawurrung People
• View significant heritage places and archaeological sites on the Victorian Heritage Interactive Map
• Compare historic and present-day Ballarat through the Cityscapes and Artscapes through time tools
• Survey Ballarat’s musical heritage with the interactive Songways Music Map
• Hear stories of unique characters and events that shaped Ballarat in the Tales from Rat City podcast series 

Visualise the connections

• The Visualising Ballarat mapping tool is an interactive way to explore the city’s landscape, ecology, history and regulatory frameworks
• The Ballarat 3D terrain map visualises the city's terrain today and can be overlaid with historical maps highlighting change and consistency over time
• The Ballarat Photo Map offers a window into the past and present of the city
• Read the stories and memories of people in the Ballarat community and see their link to places in Ballarat and around the world on The Memory Atlas  
• TimeCapsule Ballarat provides a continuously evolving and interactive map of places valued and remembered in Ballarat

Explore our values

• The Ballarat Imagine community consultation uncovered what the community loves, values and imagines for the future of Ballarat and see these values linked to landscape character areas
• Uncover community values for specific areas around our city through consultation summaries [link to MySay archive – FORTHCOMING] and community engagement reports [link to collection online – FORTHCOMING]

What are our goals

• The Today, Tomorrow, Together: The Ballarat Strategy outlines the community’s vision for the future and guides Council’s approaches to delivering it

• The other key driver for developing Ballarat’s future is the Creative City Strategy, which provides key priorities and areas of focus for fostering the creative life of the city and its economy

• A series of community-led local area plans [link to MySay archive – FORTHCOMING] guide the future of Ballarat’s local areas and townships

• Ballarat locals told us that our city’s unique character and heritage was of critical importance to the future of their city so and their voice guided the city's heritage plan. This plan guides how we best leverage, safeguard and celebrate our city’s heritage.

• Ballarat is the first Council of Europe Intercultural City in the southern hemisphere. The Intercultural City strategic plan guides how we build on the concept of mutual respect and ‘shared values’ of freedom, democracy, social inclusion, the rule of law and equal opportunity.

• Ballarat’s health and wellbeing plan outlines the extensive work undertaken by various City of Ballarat units which positively impact the health and wellbeing of the local community

• Ballarat is a pilot city for the United Nations Global Compact - Cities Programme's Australian city partnerships 

• View more plans and policies

Engage local people

Depending on the size of your project, participation with local people may enhance the likelihood of success – e.g. Localised ‘Love, Imagine, Retain’ survey or facilitation of community meetings during the planning stage. Make sure you close the loop by communicating the outcomes or findings and manage community expectations.

To find out more about how to apply the HUL approach within your area, contact the heritage and cultural landscapes and strategic planning teams (HUL focal point) for further information.