The symposium discussing the possibility of nominating the Victorian Goldfields for the listing heard from over a dozen speakers over the day, including Sovereign Hill CEO Jeremy Johnson, the National Trust’s acting CEO Paul Roser, economist Dr Peter Brain, and US National Main St  vice-president Matt Wagner.

Peter Brain used the example of the growth of the Mt Alexander Shire as a case study of the benefits of heritage, saying that while there are indeed costs and restrictions that come with protecting our past, those costs are far outweighed by the benefits that a local economy gains from increased population, changed demographics and improved housing prices.

Dr Brain said higher prices for heritage housing meant that it was more likely that new houses will be built if they were cheaper to construct than the price for an existing home. He said 77 per cent of people in the shire believed that the heritage of the area attracted new people with new skills to live there.

Matt Wagner of the National Main Street Centre out of the USA is part of a program that focuses on rejuvenating central business districts. He says there’s no big fix to revitalising business areas such as Sturt Street, but rather it takes an incremental approach involving business choice, street design, recognising the unique character in certain buildings, and promotion of the area as a whole.

He says professional management of a town area is the key to success, a 24/7 organisation that is invested in the overall health and dynamics of that area.

Paul Roser says the symposium was a chance to crystallise thinking about what World Heritage listing would mean, in terms of both economics, preservation and for the region as a whole.

“The benefits for the broader region could be immense – if we get it right.”