It is the first time the conference on school life, school history museums and collections has been held in the southern hemisphere. 

Professor Blainey has strong ties to Ballarat, having lived in the city for four years while growing up, attending Ballarat High School for three before moving to Melbourne, and was the first chancellor of the former University of Ballarat. 

Some of his books have strong references to Ballarat and he has extensively researched its  mining heritage. 

“Sovereign Hill gives pleasure to so many people when they come here,” he said on Thursday. “I think a lot of people expect to come and be bored as it’s a museum, but that’s not the case.” 

Professor Blainey said museums had become extremely innovative, branching into education. 

“I’m sure they’re doing some of the work of the schools now – in a very interesting way,” he said.

Museum director Brett Dunlop said Sovereign Hill had sent delegates to the symposium before and pitched to bring it to Ballarat during the 2013 conference in Slovenia.

He said Sovereign Hill had a leading museum educational program with its costume-school emersion experience, which it would share with other delegates. 

The program opened on Wednesday evening, with content discussions from Thursday to Saturday. 

Delegates from about 10 countries are attending, from across Europe and Scandinavia, the Ivory Coast and Nigeria.

Speakers will include staff from the Museum of Education and Pedagogy in Slovakia, the project manager from the library of the University of Aarhus in Denmark and a volunteer research assistant from the University of Crete in Greece.

nicole.cairns@fairfaxmedia.com.au