Clear Waters Run Deep In City’s New Sister

Eau Claire president Bill Nielsen and Lismore mayor Bob Gates sign the sister city agreement, watched by Dr Karl Markgraf, the director of International Studies at the University of Wisconsin, four of the university’s exchange students - Bryan Holzer, Allison Ishizaki, Leah Prendergast and Tanya Buchholtz - who are currently studying in Lismore at Southern Cross, and Paul Melloy, director of SCU’s International Office - who’s quite partial to a drop of clear water.

Until they speak, revealing a rich American accent, you could be forgiven for thinking that the good folk of Eau Claire, Wisconsin - population 63,000 - are talking about Lismore, Australia when they describe their home town.

The two cities - who appropriately became ‘sister cities’ this week - have much in common. Both places are rural university towns with a proud history of timber and dairying. They were both settled in roughly the same time frames, with the timber cutters first moving in during the 1840s - in Eau Claire’s case, seeking the highly prized white pine.

The cities are settled at the junctions of flood-prone rivers - Eau Claire, meaning ‘clear water’ in the tongue of the French trappers who first visited the area, has even spent years debating the vexed issue of where to build a swimming pool for its citizens.

The University of Wisconsin is renowned for its education, music, nursing and business faculties - a mirror of the strengths at Lismore’s Southern Cross. (UoW’s acclaimed jazz program beats anything New Orleans has to offer hands down).

In fact, for the last five years an exchange program between the two universities has been popular with both students and staff on both sides of the Pacific. There are currently 70 US students studying in Lismore.

Meantime, Eau Claire is grappling with poor infrastructure, the fact that has one of the lowest per capita incomes in the state of Wisconsin, and issues like how to maintain is small town charm while encouraging development.

So when the people of Eau Claire decided to look for their first sister city, Lismore was the obvious choice - and being an Australian town sealed the deal in front of the nine worldwide cities which made the short list.

According to Eau Claire president (the region’s mayoral equivalent) Bill Nielsen, who led a three-man delegation to Lismore this week to sign the sister cities agreement, the two places have more in common than separating them.

Mr Nielsen, a farmer who will step down as president next month, said Lismore was chosen because it had similar goals and opportunities.

“But I think we got the better end of the deal,” he grinned. “We love Australia!”

Mr Nielsen said Eau Claire, 140km east of the metropolis of Minneapolis, and west of the Milwaukee on the Great Lakes, was facing a number of economic development challenges.

“Through our relationship with Lismore, we hope to explore opportunities for economic advancement and exchange.

“We started in lumbering and then dairying and manufacturing, but after a downturn in those industries, Eau Claire recently evolved into a centre for high technology and software manufacture,” he said.

“Our experience could be of assistance to Lismore in developing technology-based industries.”

Lismore mayor Bob Gates agreed there were a surprising number of similarities between the two cities, especially in the areas of education, regional economies, sport and health.

Local baseball buffs will be delighted to know that Eau Claire is home to home run legend Hank Aaron, the man who broke Babe Ruth’s record.

But there is one thing Lismore residents used to subtropical weather might need to adjust to. Eau Claire’s mean winter peak temperature is 0°C.

“You get used to it and come to love it,” the city’s skiing president said, grinning once again.

Simon Thomsen

On Wednesday, the delegation from Eau Claire, Lismore’s new sister city, caught up with old friends in the year three class at St Carthage’s Primary School.

The class has been participating in an E-mail exchange with Robbins Elementary School in Eau Claire over the last month. Students from the class are pictured with Eau Claire school principal Jerry Brauer (centre), their teacher, Meg Cottee and St Carthage’s principal, Jim McGrath.

The students were given gifts from the Eau Claire school including shirts, pens, postcards, stickers, lollies and a book of history on Eau Claire. Mr Brauer will be returning to his city with a similar package from the St Carthage’s students including novelty koalas, a promotional school video, an Australian animals calendar and something that will no doubt amuse the American children - a school uniform.

“Our schools can learn a great deal from each other by exchanging our different perspectives and sharing our strengths,” Jerry said.

“The children from both towns get a better understanding of each others culture and it’s fun as well as educational. For instance we discovered here are very comprehensive reading programs in Australia and we would like to learn about them so we can possibly implement some of those ideas and techniques.

“And I can’t think of a more interesting way to get children motivated and involved with computers and the Internet. It’s a very valuable exchange and one that we hope to continue.”

Terra Sword