This is the same council which showed its support for MADE in 2013 by allowing its mayor and deputy – (now current mayor Samantha McIntosh) – to attend a triathlon in northern New South Wales in deference to presenting at the centre’s grand opening.

The same council which has repeatedly spluttered funding and resources from the facility dating back 20 years. Less than a year after MADE opened, the city was already going cap in hand to the state government seeking ongoing budgetary support, so concerned was it about low revenues and high costs.

This was a council that was comfortable publicly scapegoating centre managers during the early days of MADE all while failing to admit the oversights required – which should have been rigorous given the precedent of other troubled start-up museums – were insufficient.

The question of who, if anyone, owns the Eureka story has been debated ad infinitum. There will be many who argue that if Ballarat City Council doesn’t own or operate the Eureka Centre and use it as a storytelling vehicle then the events of 1854 will be devalued or, worse, relegated to mythology. 

The reality is that the proposal to re-engineer the Eureka Centre, supported by the council this week, is a shallow and defeatist response to the problems associated with visitation to MADE. It makes no definitive statement about Eureka’s place within Ballarat, other than that ideas have run dry.

We shouldn’t be surprised by the outcome. Ballarat’s council is highly divided by party politics which has always infiltrated Eureka conversations. It’s continually challenged by the need to meet community expectations amid tight budget constraints which exacerbates its deficient management of major facilities and projects. In the case of MADE, it simply does not have the expertise or patience to support a vision which would have had a much greater chance of success had the necessary investment – financially and strategically – been better understood before sods started turning.

It is now time for Ballarat residents to re-stake a claim on Eureka. Let the council run the building on the Eureka site and instead set about a community-driven campaign to create an outdoor storytelling journey where visitors can imagine and feel the voices and souls from the stockade bygone – but at the Ballarat Botanic Gardens precinct where visitation is already high. Whatever historic information tells us – and much is disputed - there’s nothing about the existing Eureka Centre precinct which feels like you are at the stockade. More signage and better marketing won’t fix that. The gardens precinct would provide a captive audience and already supports other forms of storytelling, not the least the Prime Ministers Avenue.

The union movement, so lacking relevance yet so tightly holding onto the spirit of Eureka needs to put its money where its mouth is. A small percentage of every union membership in Australia should be funnelled into providing the financial security for upkeep of the installation.

Let’s make a renewed pitch to embed the anniversary of Eureka in a nationally-recognised day – December 3. Influence educators to give greater prominence to the story in a national history curriculum. Establish social media channels which invite interaction, debate and commentary which are not moderated to the edge of inconsequence.

Ballarat doesn’t need to make money from the Eureka precinct. Ballarat doesn’t need to create a museum, or a tourist attraction to keep the spirit burning. What Ballarat can do is keep the story in the hearts, minds and souls of Australians.