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Moonta Mines Path to World Heritage Listing
5 November 2008
The first steps were taken this week to engage the local community in Moonta Mines quest for National and World Heritage Listing. While the timing couldn't have been worse with the iconic Melbourne Cup only hours away, a number of committed locals for-went the Cup preliminaries and popped in on their way to social functions to swell the numbers to around 70 people.
The St Piran flags of Cornwall on display and the local Cornish Association Branch banner provided an impressive welcome message for our Cornish Visitors and helped convey local support for the Town's Cornish heritage.
The opening keynote address by world authority on Cornish Studies, Professor Philip Payton set the scene for the day's proceedings. His passion for and knowledge of Australia's Little Cornwall, Moonta and Moonta Mines, and the contribution of our own Oswald Prior, was inspirational.
Barry Gamble of the Cornwall County Council and a key member of Cornwall's successful World Heritage campaign, followed and left us in no doubt as to his credentials and his preparedness to play a key advisory role in Moonta Mines bid for World Heritage Status and share Cornwall's blueprint for success.
Speakers from State and Federal Government Heritage organisations also contributed by explaining the process for National and World Heritage Listing and reminding us of the bureaucratic protocols, the lead times and competitive nature of the National listing and the decision making process. We were, however, heartened by the knowledge that both Listings would be persued concurrently but it became clear that Moonta Mines National Listing might prove the most difficult to achieve.
The challenge for all of us is to work together with the same fervour and passion as Cornwall and prove that our case for National and World Heritage Listing is both outstanding and compelling.
At the local community level we need to demonstrate that we strongly support Moonta Mines case for National and World Heritage Listing and can effectively link with the relevant Govt Heritage Authorities and partner together with The National Trust, Moonta Branch, Moonta & District Progress Association, Cornish Association of SA -YP Branch and others to increase public awareness of our cause, attract wide support for it and help promote our case at a national level.