Marking Ballarat Chinese heritage in key Sturt Street location

Charles Zhang, president of the Chinese Australian Cultural Society Ballarat, made the comment in reference to the possibility of acquiring Canadian's Victory House along Geelong Road, which he said he hoped would one day preserve and exhibit a range of contemporaneous letters and artefacts relevant to Ballarat Chinese residents from the late 1800s to the 1950s.

The fate of the historic home, built and owned by the influential Yung Chung family for some six generations, was recently secured when council backflipped on its controversial 4-3 decision not to investigate heritage protection for the site.

"We have a strong history of giving back to the Australian community, the Victorian community and the Ballarat community," he said. "I think these stories haven't been told enough."

"We want people to appreciate the Chinese contribution to Ballarat but also for our new generation of Chinese to come here and make a place as a home but also to make your own contribution to the community and build a city together the same way the Chinese did 150 years ago.

"We're looking to preserve the history, but at the moment we're also making new history for a new generation to come."

Mr Zhang said Victory House would complement the Xin Shan Library, situated at 200 Sturt Street in the heart of the city, which launched to much fanfare in April this year.

Though yet to receive a formal permit from council to open, the library boasts a collection of over 200,000 Chinese books and accordingly ranks amongst the largest Chinese libraries in the southern hemisphere

Mr Zhang said that while it would be impossible to undo waves of discrimination in form of cultural and heritage loss, he was confident both the library and Victory House would, in time, help preserve the Chinese contribution to Ballarat for future generations to come.

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