Ballarat’s best and brightest in construction, architecture and business have been honoured for their work in upholding the history of the city at the annual Heritage Awards, which took place on Tuesday night.
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Now in its eighth year, the awards night is run by the City of Ballarat in conjunction with the National Trust’s Ballarat branch.
National Trust Ballarat president Dianne Gow said the increasing popularity of the awards demonstrated how council, the construction industry and the city were all beneficiaries from upholding Ballarat’s history.
“It’s more about working together for an outstanding end result and people are seeing if we work together and have developers and builders working with council the outcome should be a celebrated,' Ms Gow said.
“The winner is Ballarat, because when you see the projects that are happening as you drive around the streets you see there’s absolute interest in heritage.”
Among the winners were Morton Dunn Architects and the Australian Catholic University for the Catherine of Siena Centre, which took home the gong for adaptive reuse of a heritage space, as well as the Arch of Victory/Avenue of Honour Committee for the development of the Garden of the Grieving Mother, which claimed the joint title for best new work or development within a heritage area.
Speaking at the presentation, City of Ballarat mayor Samantha Mclntosh said the awards had encouraged a greater appreciation of Ballarat’s heritage.
“The enticement (of heritage) can be seen from the population growth that’s happening in Ballarat because we really do have such a beautiful space that we really do respect, protect, preserve and enhance,” Cr Mclntosh said.
A people’s choice category was also added for the first time in 2017, which was claimed by Colliers International for the work on 208-210 Sturt Street.
The new award attracted more than 700 responses from members of the Ballarat community, which Ms Dow said was proof “people really do care” about the city’s history.