17 lucky Japanese students experienced some down under hospitality as part of a youth cultural exchange. Our guests from Bankstown's Sister City of Suita, Japan had just one week to pack in a diverse range of experiences.

Hosted by local families, the Japanese youth aged between 13 - 17 enjoyed school visits to Tower Street Public and Chester Hill High School, a city tour of the Opera House, Rocks area and Taronga Park Zoo and of course local sites such as Flinders Slopes and the Georges River.

At the Farewell Function on Sunday night, the host families and students gathered for a teary farewell and a City to City exchange of gifts.

16 members of Bankstown's Talent Advancement Program (TAP) embarked on an amazing journey to our nearest and dearest sister city of Broken Hill, NSW.

2011 marks 25 years of sister city relations with Broken Hill and TAP were there during the first week of the school holidays to celebrate the 'Silver Anniversary in the Silver City.'

Selected to represent Bankstown, the TAP soloists collaborated with other youth artists (song and dance) from Broken Hill to produce a Sliver Anniversary Concert on Friday 8 July. This free concert showcased the talents of both Bankstown and Broken Hill.

This wasnt the first time TAP have shared their gift of song with Broken Hill, having travelled there in 2007 to celebrate the 21st anniversary of our partnership.

It wasn't all hard work though, as the TAP soloists also enjoyed an itinerary of sight seeing in this iconic Aussie city. All of the soloists were home hosted by Broken Hill families and enjoyed a real city meets country celebration.

Three youth representatives from Council's Youth Advisory Committee and Council's Sister City Coordinator attended this year's annual National Sister Cities Conference in Toowoomba. This Conference was an opportunity for youth delegates to meet with Councillors, officers and community members to discuss the value of sister cities and plan for new and innovative projects.

Council was recognised at the Conference with two awards for their Sister City and Partnership Program. First in the category of Overall Program for demonstrating continuity of activity, citizen and community involvement and imagination in a wide range of projects and activities. The second award was for best Youth Project which had encouraged and stimulated youth participating in a local sister cities program.

In the late seventies, the Broken Hill artist group, the 'Brushmen of the Bush', exhibited their artwork at the Bankstown Town Hall. This initial contact led to our first sister city relationship formalised in 1986 and 25 years later the relationship is stronger than ever.

The highlight of the year was the annual youth sporting exchange which saw 100 youth and supervisors travel to Broken Hill, NSW for a week of friendly sporting competition in the codes of cricket and netball. All of the Bankstown youth participants were home hosted by their 'rivals' in a week of fun, sport and cultural exchange.

As this is the silver anniversary year both Councils signed a Memorandum of Understanding which will diversify and strengthen the relationship and celebrated the milestone with a reunion function for past participants of the Exchange.

Find out more about the history of Bankstown City Council's Sister City Program

| 1986 - 1990 | 1991 - 1995 | 1996 - 1998 | 1999 - 2001 | 2002 | 2003 | 2004 | 2005 | 2006 | 2007 | 2008 | 2009 | 2010 | 2012 | 2013 |