An Australia ICOMOS and City of Ballarat Conference
About Australia ICOMOS
Australia ICOMOS (International Council on Monuments and Sites) is a non-government, not-for-profit organisation of cultural heritage professionals formed as a national committee of ICOMOS in 1976.
Australia ICOMOS’s mission is to lead cultural heritage conservation in Australia by raising standards, encouraging debate and generating innovative ideas.
As a diverse membership network covering the whole range of heritage specialisms, Australia ICOMOS’ strength and impact comes from our ongoing interdisciplinary exchanges and conversations, which inform all its approaches and activities.
Australia ICOMOS’s members work together to improve the conservation of our cultural heritage. This means that we are constantly reviewing and improving standards and techniques specific to each type of cultural heritage: monuments, buildings, groups of buildings, sites, places, and landscapes.
About the City of Ballarat
Ballarat is Victoria’s third largest city, located about 100kms or 1 hour from Melbourne and is a hub for culture, manufacturing, health, education, and retail. Its local government, the City of Ballarat, supports the economic, social, and cultural development of its community, offering a wide range of services. Governed by nine Councillors, it plays a key role in regional initiatives. In 2019, Ballarat partnered with the City of Greater Bendigo and 13 other councils to lead a World Heritage bid for the Victorian Goldfields, which was added to Australia’s World Heritage Tentative List in 2025. In 2019 Ballarat was designated a UNESCO Creative City of Crafts and Folk Art with the tagline ‘Heritage City. Creative City’.
Ballarat is located on the Traditional Country of the Wadawurrung and Dja Dja Wurrung peoples, whose deep cultural connections to the land, water and sky are reflected in songlines and storylines. The region’s landscape, shaped over 500 million years by geological and climatic forces, is rich in gold deposits that sparked the Victorian Gold Rush in 1851.
Please visit the City of Ballarat, Victorian Goldfields World Heritage and Creative City websites for more details.
Australia ICOMOS and the City of Ballarat are proud to acknowledge the Traditional Custodians of the land which includes Ballarat today, the Wadawurrung and Dja Dja Wurrung People, and recognise their continuing connection to the land and waterways.
We pay our respects to all Elders, past and present, and extend this to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander People.