The transformational power of the HUL approach: lessons from Ballarat, Australia, 2012-2017

This paper highlights the transformative power of the HUL approach by exploring its innovative application in the City of Ballarat, Australia, since 2012. Part of the global pilot phase for the HUL, Ballarat is notable for its mainstreaming of HUL principles by local government. This has had diverse and impressive outcomes – heritage and culture have completely permeated the city’s work; new community engagement models are being developed and implemented; and many more partners of all kinds are buying in to a bigger vision about culture and identity than before. A broader cultural shift can be observed in Ballarat, and HUL has been an ‘energiser’ for others to try new things. Ballarat’s experience not only highlights how local government practice can be transformed; it predicts transformational change at other levels of government and for heritage practice itself.