From Monday 14th to Friday 18th of May, councillor Dayne Gumley, myself, members of the Sister City Advisory Panel along with our partners visited both Minokamo and Toyama in Japan. Wellington’s sister city Toyama is the City created from the merge of two towns - Osawano and Toyama. The partnership has been in place since August 1992. Minokamo has been Dubbo City’s sister city since 1989.

My visit to Toyama was prompted by Toyama Mayor Mori’s visit to Dubbo last November where he conveyed stories of Wellington and Toyama’s history of international relations.  This included the construction of the magnificent Osawano Japanese Gardens adjacent to the Wellington Caves Complex. The Dubbo Region delegation visit was to re-confirm our relationship with Toyama post amalgamation and to recognize the truly magnificent relationship the former Dubbo City Council has had with Minokamo, acknowledging that these relationships will continue for decades to come. Now that we have two Japanese sister cities, it gives us the wonderful opportunity to be able to specialise our relationships.

Firstly, our Minokamo sister city has served Dubbo City well for almost 30 years.  This relationship has not only created our Shoyoen Japanese Garden at Elizabeth Park, but it has also created one of the premier educational sister city exchanges for a regional Australian city. Over the years the relationship has exposed many of our young residents to incredible opportunities that the wider world can provide.  The unique and friendly people of Minokamo are remarkably organised in this field. It is my belief that Minokamo is a sister city we must cherish and embrace with even more enthusiasm.

Secondly, our reconfirmed Toyama relationship gives us a sophisticated opportunity to focus on both agricultural and environmental outcomes.  Toyama has a deep environmental focus while being a local food centre of excellence.  Their river waterways are internationally renowned while the city is surrounded by agricultural land use that is both sustainable and has been in operation for many generations. Toyama is extremely proud of its environmental and agricultural history but are also keen to learn new techniques as well as showcasing their achievements to the Dubbo Region.

In recent years our region has started to significantly increase efforts in environmental sustainability and management.  Already this new council has adopted my policies of gross pollutant rollouts, solving the erosion problem in our rivers and right now we are conducting proper community consultation into Coal Seam Gas exploration in the region. Dubbo and Toyama clearly have a great opportunity to share knowledge and skills for the benefit of both of our communities. I have asked the Sister Cities Advisory Panel to investigate further opportunities in the field of environmental and agricultural opportunities with Toyama. This panel of experienced residents is well placed to drive our re-invigorated Japanese sister city arrangements. Lastly I’d like to mention the new Dubbo Regional Council has a policy for sister city delegations that I am really proud of. Putting it simply, the Mayor, Councillors, partners and community members all must pay their own way while overseas.  Ratepayer funds are not used for overseas travel in this regard and nor should it.

This region has a great opportunity to use these relationships as a tool to enhance our own city. For the Dubbo region to be part of international cooperation makes ready for the future ahead.