HUL Toolkit

I am a Project Partner working with the City of Ballarat

The City of Ballarat has adopted the Historic Urban Landscape (HUL) framework across its operations. As such, a rich, contextual and localised understanding of our city and current community values are taken into account as a first step in all our activities. This approach ensures that local people and an interdisciplinary understanding of our city can help shape any project outcomes at the most impactful stage of the process – the beginning. It also allows for project risks to be identified earlier and can prevent costly delays in implementation later on.

We have established expectations around communications, engagement and participation within local people as well the collaborative and problem-solving practices required when working with the HUL. As a project partner, these expectations also extend to you. This page contains tools to help you navigate the HUL requirements.

• To discover our city’s distinctive character and evolution see Step 1: Understand the Ballarat context
• To discover local people’s priorities for their city see Step 2: Review current community values and Step 4: Genuine engagement with local people
• To identify Council’s priorities for Ballarat see Step 3: Understand Council expectations

Step 1: Understand the Ballarat context

• 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  Get the overview of Ballarat’s history, with a timeline spanning pre-contact times to the present day 
• TimeCapsule Ballarat provides a continuously evolving and interactive map of places valued and remembered in Ballarat
• 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 

Step 2: Review current community 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]

Step 3: Understand Council expectations

The City of Ballarat expects collaborative and interdisciplinary work methods to develop creative solutions using the HUL framework. Be prepared to work closely with locals and a range of internal council teams to creatively shape the project for implementation in Ballarat. It’s important to understand the nuances of our city with fresh eyes and be open to trying different methods that can best respond to our local context, opportunities and values.

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

Step 4: Genuine engagement with local people

The HUL framework requires meaningful participatory engagement with local people at all stages of projects. Depending on the level of change and impact and the level of information available regarding current community values, either an informed, consultative or participatory planning process needs to be undertaken.

Ongoing communications with local people are essential to managing expectations.

If you wish to discuss how we can apply the HUL approach to a partnered project, please contact the City of Ballarat on info@ballarat.vic.gov.au or 5320 5500 for further information.