Sister Cities: Lake Macquarie, Australia 1997

Rotorua's Sister Cities

Rotorua has a relationship with four other cities around the world, known as our Sister Cities. The modern concept of Sister Cities or Twin Towns came about in 1947, after World War 2. According to the NZ Sister Cities website: The establishment of sister city friendships stimulates interaction between people of different cultures and countries on a people-to-people basis, ...Connecting people globally for peace and prosperity.

Rotorua's sister cities are:

1. Klamath Falls, USA 1962
2. Beppu, Japan 1987
3. Lake Macquarie, NSW, Australia 1997
4. Wuzhong District of Suzhou City, China 2000

Lake Macquarie, Australia

The City of Lake Macquarie in Australia is located approximately 150 km north of Sydney. When the agreement was signed in 1997 approximately 180,000 people lived in the Lake Macquarie area of New South Wales, Australia.

The idea of a sister city relationship was first approached in 1994 when then Rotorua District Council Director of Community Services Greg Fraser meet Lake Macquarie's Bill Hanley at the New Zealand Sister Cities Convention in Timaru.

A number of discussions took place during the mid 1990s and in September 1997 Mayor John Kilpatrick led a delegation of more than 30 people to Rotorua where a formal agreement was signed.

The official signing ceremony also included a powhiri and dinner. Māori cultural group Ngāti Rangiwewehi performed and there was a special guest appearance by Rotorua's own Tina Turner, aka Bea Yates.

Mr Kilpatrick was presented with a weaving created at the New Zealand Māori Arts and Crafts Institute. It was the last design by Emily Schuster, who had recently passed away.

In November Grahame Hall and mayoress Sandy Hall led a 34-strong delegation to Lake Macquarie for a week-long visit where a reciprocal signing took place. The delegation included Deputy Mayor Johnny Lepper, Councillors Mita Mohi, Trevor Maxwell, Ben Benfield, Knocker Dean and Annie Bowie, as well as a group of Rotorua business and educational community representatives.

The two councils gifted each other paintings of local scenes. Rotorua was given a painting of Lake Macquarie and Rotorua gave Lake Macquarie a painting of the Rotorua Musuem of Art and History building.

In February 1999 Grahame and Sandy Hall attended the official opening of Lake Macquarie's $6.5 million-dollar athletic track and gymnasium. This was the first official function Hall attended since the sister city agreement was signed.

Over the years there have been numerous official and unofficial (dignitaries visiting while on holiday) visits between the two cities, including several sporting exchanges with runners in relay, marathon and half marathon events, particularly at high school level.

This blog post was written by Graeme, with thanks to the Daily Post and the Rotorua Lakes Council. (2019, May 17).