ERIN McCUSKEY, filmmaker, photographer, twirler, cine-artiste and creator of Luxville: We have an opportunity to create place using new technology and ideas that account for the future as much as our past. My worry is that as a city, as a people, we will continue to rely on the ways things have always been done, because we are comfortable there. We have not yet listened to our cultural heart. With new people and new ideas, we have a chance to do that. Let's build up our centres, pull people together and reduce the sprawl that will inevitably impact all our futures.

MICK TREMBATH, musician, wordsmith, historian, provocateur: I feel like all the old school charm, often derisively and patronisingly referred to as 'country', is being eroded, replaced with the same stress and paranoia I couldn't stand in when I lived in the metropolitan area. It annoys the living shit out of me that people move to Ballarat from larger cities, then speak and act as if they have somehow moved to a substandard part of the world or, because of their geographical birth, they are somehow more cultured, more intelligent or better.

Strangely all I see in a lot of these new residents is a sense of loneliness or displacement. You can feel them trying to fit in, of weathering the two or three long lonely years it takes to feel as if you are part of this city. You see them manufacturing a sense of belonging. I see many businesses and government strategies offering sugar hits and placebos to a sense of belonging.

It takes a long time to belong. To have all the stories pinned to places creating meaningful connection. That being said, the new colony replaces the old colony; I suppose that's the grand legacy of a colonial invasion, the endless cycle of not really belonging anywhere. Planting begonias that in the end only grow in a purpose-built hothouse, because the actual soil won't support them.

ERIN McCUSKEY: Our central streetscapes are changing positively mostly. New greenery, new buildings, new eateries and new places to gather. We have a new appreciation of the beauty and connectedness in this place, through festivals and projects that call our hearts and ask us questions. Can we finally see ourselves with an international gravitas? I hope so.

MICK TREMBATH: I'm seeing more artists moving here and that's good. Hopefully some sort of critical mass will develop and a lot of the culture that I like will start reappear again. The small gigs, the diversity of music, daggy theatres. All that stuff that lets people talk about who they really are rather than reassuring the world they are all ethically toeing the line.

ERIN McCUSKEY: Our Town Hall was built when gold was on the downturn. Where are our risktakers now? Our glorious buildings are prioritised, sometimes to the detriment of people, place and legend. We have lost opportunities to lead with our heart. An economy is not a society, it is only a part of one. We have torn down some of our wild hearted ones, lost some capacity to change our minds and have forgotten that controversy is an opportunity for energy and discussion. We must think about what we will leave for the future.

MICK TREMBATH: When the Government gets involved in art and music or bright young things who want to prove themselves to the commercial industry start thinking the can produce good work, they inevitably comb the wheat fields of creation into nice neat rows. Makes it easier to harvest on time. They plant box office resistant strains of art. They choose when a place has to yield. The grain is weighted and sorted. It also means that the over all idea of 'Ballarat' can claims responsibility for these acres of creativity. There is no Ballarat, only people who've idealised a brand but the brand lend great legitimacy and power to the people who are voted in to manages the brand.

ERIN McCUSKEY: Culturally we need to see, hear and acknowledge our full story. This place has a connection older than 60,000 years. We need our leaders to lead with their hearts. A forever strategy that brings our Wadawurrung and Dja Dja Wurrung elders and people into paid positions to guide us as a people. Begin by reclaiming our 4 As, BAllAArAt, to acknowledge more fully our country and custodians. We can only proudly accept who we are, when we know where we have come from, acknowledge what was done and move to make amends. Then we can tell our full story and claim our connection to country. This is where our identity is, now and forever.

MICK TREMBATH: Nothing. At the moment the vast amount of change is exhausting the city. It's like your partner is going to the plastic surgeon each week, coming back looking a less like the person you fell in love with. I'm sure there are 10,000 great ideas, but all these changes are implemented by processes that are controlled, funded and have purpose. There's not much room for the essential chaos needed for originality or true expression. This city has changed 10 times since I was a lad and people are still doing the same stupid shit. You don't lose weight by putting on a bigger jumper. Let the joint rest for a bit and in 200 years we might have something approaching a culture.

ERIN McCUSKEY: To work to embrace our cultures, all cultures, this learning from our elders and the world will stand us in good stead. Embracing new ideas and ways of seeing as we build our world with housing that reflects the way we need to live in the future. Connected to safe public transport, environmentally supportive, green spaces, dance spaces, building up not out and caring for our old ones.

MICK TREMBATH: I'd just like to see anything long-term. Long-term support for live music. Long-term support for sports. Long-term support for projects that allow people to depend on something rather than have is change into something else every two years.

ERIN McCUSKEY: The potential to be listening only to our wallets. Our decisions now shape our future, let's make it grand. Let's be the risktakers for the next generation, fail and succeed in equal measure. We need to act now to protect our night skies and the natural environment within our reach. New technology and a willingness to be active in our discussions for more trees, less cars, more care and open mindedness.

MICK TREMBATH: Displacement and soullessness. Have you ever been to Bateman's Bay? It used to be a delightful little seaside joint and now it's just a plastic bag full of people. You can really destroy a city's sense of place and purpose and its sense of humour by letting the joint be run by people that are too frightened to laugh at a party. Ballarat is still stiff and weird and I think that's going to get worse. The people that the city is being built for are nice slacks-wearing types who pay their bills on time. What do you do with the other 85 per cent of people who live here?

ERIN McCUSKEY: A welcoming place that understands its full story and can share that story with a sense of wholeness and identity. We have many stories to tell and people who care enough to tell them. We are a city that celebrates the entirety of its past, proclaims its beginnings as two cities, has a people that demands its leaders make decisions that are right for our hearts, not simply within budget. A city (people) that works to build an international legacy for those who come after. A city that takes risks to be more fabulous than it is today.

MICK TREMBATH: The joint should have some point of difference. What good is the future if at all looks the same? Bendigo, Ballarat, Newcastle....where's any discernible difference? Why would I be arsed to go to a new city if I'm sitting on the same chair drinking the same coffee watching the same art being hung on the same walls? Ideally it would be great if cities were allowed to feel different. If place didn't just have a Big Thing or shiny public toilet but were somehow reflective of the what lives there. The ability to deep dive into the living culture of a city. That's the challenge.

I'm not talking heritage here. Fitzroy used to feel different from other bits of Melbourne. Why? Just an arbitrary street and you were in another suburb. But it felt different. St Kilda felt different to Camberwell. What is that? How did that happen? Why did people flock to those suburb to feel a different way? That's what I'd like to see.

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