I must confess to have, on occasion, attended a council-related event in Melbourne and left wondering whether my time has been well spent.
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I recently attended a workshop entitled 'The Art of Creating Resilient Economies and Communities'.
The title of the event didn't give much away and as soon as I walked into the room I wondered if I'd made a mistake in attending at all.
There would have been approximately 100 people in the room.
I was the only councillor and most people were town planners or worked in community development.
All were city-based and none were from rural or country Victoria.
Over the course of the day we heard a number of speakers whose topic was around the theme of “How do we invigorate our towns?”
I soon overcame my initial hesitation and found the day both interesting and relevant.
Questions were explored such as “do our towns look interesting places to stop?”
Some others included “is council open to supporting the quirky and interesting ideas generated by the community that make our towns unique and special?”and “does council provide 'spaces' to support the community to put on events and make interesting things happen?”
It's an area that the West Wimmera Shire has been focusing upon for some time.
Through the Streetscape Scheme, grants have been made available whereby businesses on the main streets of our towns can receive council support to upgrade their shop fronts, improve accessibility or simply put on new coat of paint.
These visible upgrades help add to the impression of well-maintained and happening towns.
The painted sheep that decorate the main street of Kaniva are certainly quirky and unique!
It's this odd but interesting attraction that encourages visitors to walk up one side of the street and down the other, checking out the sheep and hopefully all the businesses along the way.
It can be easy to dismiss some of the airy-fairy and the arty ideas, but the fantastic and now famous painted silos at Brim are testament to the value of thinking outside the box.
- Cr Annette Jones, West Wimmera Shire mayor
