Goolwa near the River Murray mouth in South Australia becomes first Cittaslow town outside of Europe from 2007

Cittaslow Corner in the centre of Goolwa near the Rivery Murray mouth in South Australia. Inset: The certificate presented in 2007 by a visiting delegation from Italy to confirm Goolwa in the Alexandrina Council district as the first Cittaslow town outside of Europe.

Goolwa, near the River Murray mouth in South Australia, became accredited in 2007 as the first Australian Cittaslow with a delegation coming from Italy to present the certificate to the town’s Alexandrina Council.

Cittaslow (pronounced chee/tah slow) or slow town was a whole-of-community approach to promoting quality of life and sustainability in towns and cities in a partnership between local government and communities. As the first Cittaslow town outside of Europe, Goolwa Alexandrina had to address more than 50 criteria on the environment, infrastructure, urban quality, support for local producers and products, culture/arts and heritage, social inclusion, hospitality and tourism, education and sustainability and partnerships. 

Goolwa’s Cittaslow story started in the early 2000s and the millennium drought’s severe effects on community morale and on the river and lower lakes. Community members seeking a means to revitalise the region were inspired by a postcard on Australian Broadcasting Corporation’s Foreign Correspondent featuring a movement conceived in 1999 by a group of mayors in Italy.

In 2004, the Southern Alexandrina Business Association commissioned a study of how the Cittaslow model could work in Goolwa. The not-for-profit community association Cittaslow Goolwa was formed that year to support Alexandrina Council in fostering and advancing Cittaslow values.  Cittaslow Goolwa Alexandrina later became a founding member of Cittaslow Australasia network (formed in 2011) together with Yea in Victoria and Katoomba in the  Blue Mountains. These became part of a network of 250 towns worldwide and, in 2017, Goolwa hosted the CittaSlow international general assembly.

Cittaslow promoted values in keeping with the philosophy of the slow movement, acknowledging that '”good things take time'”. As a Cittaslow town, Goolwa was committed to supporting planning policies and decisions that promote good quality of life and a sense of pride in the community. This meant prioritising cycling and pedestrian friendly spaces, preserving local traditions and heritage, respecting and protecting the environment, supporting local business, ensuring progress was  sustainable and defending the rights of the whole community to experience health and wellbeing.

Activities associated with Cittaslow in Goolwa included:

• The Cittaslow Goolwa farmers market (second and fourth Sundays of each month),
• At the Wharf food and music at Signal Point during summer,
• Cittaslow Corner information centre in central Goolwa,
• Cottaslow Goolwa Community Garden, Kessell Road, Goolwa,
• Food and wine group activities including “How to” sessions,
• Smoke Off annual community food cooking competition in slow food mode,
• An environmental croup maintaining roadsides on Hindmarsh Island.
• Goolwa fruit/food forest.