Ballarat Unmasked: Big lessons from leaders in pandemic year

The Courier canvassed a leaders across the city to share their pandemic learnings on health, education, business, philanthropy and civic duty.

In a four part series, they share their insights for Ballarat Unmasked: Lessons from 2020.

BRIDGET AITCHISON, Australian Catholic University Ballarat campus dean

What has a tough year like 2020 taught us about our city?

We're resilient, committed and innovative.

It's the year that caught us all by surprise. At first we thought this was temporary and as the year went on we realised this was not temporary and we could not wait for things to return to normal.

We had to find new ways of doing things: new ways of doing business; new ways of connecting with family; and, new ways of celebrating the little things.

Businesses had to pivot. Some did this very well. Others who were not doing well had to accept the generosity of others and others who could be generous, realised they needed to be.

We learned to be kind and that we're all in this together. The second wave might have seemed medium-term changes and was more likely long time, but we also learned this was not necessarily a bad thing.

What in your mind was the standout effort during 2020?

The way everyone came together to help everybody.

In more specific standouts, Gekko's GeVentor was remarkable and hospitality learning to do business with just takeaway and delivery. There was also everybody doing life on our computer screens.

The big winner has been the environment. Cars off the road worldwide has shown the impact a change can make. The effects have moved the environment from a fringe or nice issue to a 'have to do this now one'. It's now a mainstream issue and the proof is tangible.

You only have to look at photos of world landmarks taken before COVID and during COVID to see the difference - they go from brown, sludgy skies to crystal, sparkling skies.

Will Ballarat be a better place after the pandemic, how?

We can be, but that's up to us.

What would you like to see retained from the pandemic and built on in 2021?

A win for the environment and people really coming on board for that now. Also recognising we can continue that sense of kindness.

DUNCAN BENTLEY, Federation University vice-chancellor and president

What has a tough year like 2020 taught us about our city?

Resilience. Our parents, grandparents and great-grandparents went through major wars, depression and illness.

COVID has been no less insidious and lethal.

The summer bushfires were graphic and had us transfixed to images via our screens and it evoked resilience, empathy and a sense of community that showed in spades through the community.

What in your mind was the standout effort during 2020?

Being in education, the transition schools, TAFEs and universities had to make, and so quickly, to support learners was remarkable. Students could continue their learning and there were those who thought they might go backwards. I think students have come through this with incredible skills. Whenever they want a job, there are employers who will look favourably on students who and the skills they have from this time.

Will Ballarat be a better place after the pandemic, how?

It will be, from what the pandemic has taught us in education and innovation. From what I've seen in my role at the university, there has been great innovation in health and education. The pandemic has pushed us to a real innovation mindset.

What would you like to see retained from the pandemic and built on in 2021?

I'd like to see a continued focus on the critical importance of regional areas to Australia's future growth. livability and sustainability. When you look at centres like Horsham, Ararat and Clunes feeding into Ballarat as a centre to the region, there is a great example of how regional areas can thrive. You can envisage a future model for a vibrant region that can be an example in other states and for us to take across the world.

KAREN HEAP, Ballarat and District Aboriginal Cooperative chief executive officer

What has a tough year like 2020 taught us about our city?

I think we all felt lucky during COVID-19 that we live in Ballarat and had fewer cases and a less severe lockdown. However, COVID has been very tough on Aboriginal people, including those of us living in the Ballarat region. We love to meet for storytelling and yarning, sharing a community meal and enjoying cultural activities and celebrations. Virtual NAIDOC 2020 was both fantastic and sad. Engaging in and creating culture together is as vital and natural as the beat of our blood in our veins. Social isolation for our community has been like cutting off a limb.

So many BADAC staff rose to the occasion, helping out in any way they could and making sure our Elders and community were safe. They cooked nutritious meals so our Elders and vulnerable people didn't have to shop or cook; they stuffed food hampers and delivered them; a few made masks as fundraisers; a team worked on getting information newsletters posted every fortnight instead of every quarter. BADAC's professional health and program teams kept clients connected with BADAC and supported them to access services virtually.

Broader Ballarat was similar, with people (mostly!) showing courtesy and care for each other.

What in your mind was the standout effort during 2020?

BADAC had to take strong preemptive steps to protect our Aboriginal community, as we are in the highest risk groups, with overlapping risk factors including age, chronic disease, and families experiencing multiple barriers. BADAC put in place an immediate policy response, shutting our physical doors, sending staff to work from home and assisting Aboriginal people to access everything from doctors to youth group via the internet.

It hasn't been easy for our Aboriginal people, but they kept informed, obeyed the rules, asked for help when needed, and contributed in a massive way to keeping Aboriginal people and the broader Ballarat community safe. I want to thank every single person involved from BADAC staff and the executive team to all our Elders, volunteers and community.

It could have been a disaster, but instead we were able to get through. Hopefully what we have learnt will be able to be enacted should we need this emergency response again.

Will Ballarat be a better place after the pandemic, how?

BADAC will have systems in place, staff trained and community supported to access e-health and e-meeting options. Our service offer and delivery is thus broader and more accessible into the future.

We kept operating despite all the challenges and now 2021 is looking bright, with our BADAC kindergarten in Brown Hill due to open its doors. We have also been working hard to secure funding for a smaller community Aboriginal kindergarten in Sebastopol. Connecting children to education and to culture from their earliest years will help our Aboriginal children overcome that Gap, which sadly exists in Ballarat too. Cultural kindergartens will offer a unique cultural experience for all children across the Ballarat region to enjoy.

Aboriginal people have community at the heart of everything they do. That care and respect for each other emerged as a key factor for the broader community during the pandemic. I invite people in Ballarat to understand the care and compassion they felt and experienced during the pandemic as an insight into how Aboriginal people function best.

What would you like to see retained from the pandemic and built on in 2021?

BADAC's youth groups in particular have thrived in a virtual environment, encouraging new Aboriginal youth from further shires to join. They all agree that meeting virtually is nowhere near as great as catching up in person, but virtual youth group is giving access to more youth with various barriers to physical access.

I would love to see a continuation of our willingness to embrace and explore technology to solve problems. I'd like to continue with virtual meetings, especially Melbourne-based meetings. We've all seen great productivity gains and personal energy increase, as well as better conservation of resources.

I hope everyone remains cautious and continues to use hand sanitiser, face masks as instructed and abides by health department guidelines so that we all stay safe. I hope that incredible community spirit which saved us can continue to inform our decisions and actions.

More broadly, everyone should value their friends and family and treasure the time we spend with them. Love our free space, big skies and local parks and rich natural areas. Look after your Elders, stay healthy and keep safe.

MICHAEL POULTON Committee for Ballarat chief executive officer

What has a tough year like 2020 taught us about our city?

I think the key learnings, from the city's point of view, is we've seen what's possible when we get better collaboration, and better capacity for our groups - the key leaders, the City of Ballarat, Commerce Ballarat, ourselves, AIG, BRT - when you can get those groups together to solve problems, all sorts is possible. For example, council matching the needs of retail and hospitality, to make changes, and that's come about because of genuine collaboration and importantly, intent to get stuff done.

We can no longer look at things the way we used to, the answer is no longer starting with no, the answer is how do we make that possible, how can we do it, what can we do to help?

There's this sense of normal will never be what it was, so let's start with the fact we're not going to go back to the ways we used to do things, we have to find new ways, and in many ways they're going to improve processes and lead to more opportunities. It's a significant shift.

What was the standout effort during 2020 for you?

As a particular example, I reckon the Gekko ventilator is the standout for what is possible.

There was a need, a great idea, let's get people together, how do we innovate, what resources do we need, what do we need to bring in. All the way along there was great intent and appetite to make it work, because there was perceivably a real need.

There are others like it, but it's the example for me that demonstrates how all the components can come together for rapid design and development. There's no one that was pissed off, there were lots of people brought into the process, and it's for good - it will save lives.

Will Ballarat be a better place after the pandemic, and how so?

The answer is yes - if we don't think that we've got to go back to what things where. Normal is forever changing, what was normal eight months ago is not where we need to get back to.

Ballarat can be a better place when we adopt this notion of collaboration, this notion of genuine care for our community. If we can adopt that as normal, we'll be a better place.

I still think there are some deep-set issues in the community that haven't been addressed yet It's the divide between the haves and the have-nots, the inequity.

There's the child sexual abuse, an element of healing is still required for the town.

And there's our recognition of our First Nations people.

As a town, can we use the collaboration, the problem-solving, the genuine goodwill, to solve these issues? If we can use the features that got us to this point from an economic and health perspective in those three key areas, Ballarat will definitely be a better place.

These are the mechanisms that bring about change and continuous improvement. These are the three key areas, and there are more, but they're pretty big ones.

It would be hard to think that this time last year council would have voted to put aside the fireworks on Australia Day, but I think what this year has brought about is be kind, be a compassionate city, and understanding how our behaviours impact on others.

It's an example of a shift brought about by coronavirus that potentially will result in a very different relationship with our First Nations people.

What would you like to see retained from the pandemic and built on in 2021?

Top-line, it's around the lessons of a caring, compassionate community in our decision making, that we're inclusive and think about the impacts on others, and thinking more broadly than a single bottom-line outcome. When thinking about what we retain from the pandemic, the economics have been important but they haven't been the only priority.

When I think about Victoria's response to a public health crisis, this was about people's lives first and foremost, and that's crucial. If we chose to say this is about the economy first and foremost, we would have had who knows how many dead, how many lives impacted - a very different response to the health crisis. I think prioritising people, prioritising the health of our community's wellbeing, ahead of the economy, is something that should be retained.

There's an argument that goes the other way, that says you can't have a community that's really thriving if you don't have a strong economy behind that, and I'd argue against that, there are lots of examples all around the world where people are happy, people's well-being is well-supported, there are thriving communities, that are incredibly poor and don't have access to the first-world items that we do.

It's not a socialist view of the world, it's a view that's saying people's well-being is crucial. It doesn't necessarily rely on money and finances.

JENNY WILSON, Ballarat police Superintendent

What has a tough year like 2020 taught us about our city?

It has laid bare what a compassionate City Ballarat is with lots of acts of kindness visible- linked to food delivery, homeless, health, linking with neighbours and just common acknowledgement we are having a unique shared experience

What was the standout effort during 2020 for you?

People stepping up, I was proud of my own Victoria Police workforce, who were asked to do things they hadn't before, change work conditions and increased community scrutiny. In general everyone has done this at many work locations. Even better, people have stretched themselves and developed increased competence and confidence in some areas.

Will Ballarat be a better place after the pandemic, and how so?

Ballarat is better connected than before. People and businesses are coming together to urge joint success in the town's recovery

What would you like to see retained from the pandemic and built on in 2021?

All of the above, however, experience shows us that overtime lessons can be lost.

Remaining a Compassionate City that is well connected, inclusive of others, looks after its own and is welcoming of visitors and lastly proud of all its history.

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