Community & Business
5 July, 2024
Pioneer Village welcomes visitor from South Korea
Sung-Hak Yeo from the Paju Council in South Korea visited the Pittsworth Pioneer Village last Friday as part of the sister city staff exchange program with Toowoomba Regional Council (TRC).
This staff exchange program gives the Councils the opportunity to share knowledge and skills which can improve business practices and efficiency, and bring benefits to the community.
Jane Morey, Toowoomba’s International Relations Officer, said the focus of this particular visit was on volunteer management, for Mr Yeo to see how TRC interacts and engages with the community and the role that volunteer’s play.
Mr Yeo was collected from the airport on Tuesday June 25, and he returned to South Korea on Saturday, June 29.
While on this exchange Mr Yeo visited Toowoomba Art Gallery, Crows Nest Nursery and Art Gallery, Peacehaven Nursery, the Pittsworth Pioneer Village and met with Mayor Geoff McDonald.
He also did some sightseeing in Toowoomba at Picnic Point, Queens Park and the Cobb and Co. Museum.
Mr Yeo was assisted by an interpreter.
The Toowoomba Region has a number of international sister city relationships alongside Paju in South Korea.
These include Takatsuki in Japan, Whanganui in New Zealand, and Yuecheng District, Shaoxing in China.
Paju has been a sister city of Toowoomba since 2002.
Paju is in the Gyeonggi Province of South Korea, located just south of the demilitarised zone and an hour’s drive north-west of the capital city, Seoul.
It is a rapidly growing city and is referred to as a rising future city because of its large-scale development and vision to provide its citizens with state-of-the-art facilities.
“Mr Yeo told me he will take several ideas back to Korea where he hopes to implement them,” Mayor McDonald said.
“He also hopes to develop an event register for their website, introduce volunteer-branded lanyards and implement an annual volunteer recognition theme like we do during National Volunteer Week.”
Ms Morey said that in the near future, a TRC staff member will visit Paju as part of the same program.
The Paju Council established and opened a Customer Service Centre earlier this year based on the Toowoomba model it observed on a previous staff exchange.
History Pittsworth volunteers Barbara Walker, Mary Sullivan and George Thorn, accompanied Mr Yeo on a tour through the Pioneer Village.
