About Us
Come for the adventure. Stay for the friendships.
The Bega Littleton Sister City Exchange gives you the opportunity to experience a remarkable international friendship firsthand—building connections, discovering Australia beyond the typical tourist trail, welcoming Australian friends to Colorado, and becoming part of a community that believes the world is a little smaller when people take the time to get to know one another. As a member, you can build lasting friendships with people from Bega and Littleton, discover new cultures, perspectives, and traditions, participate in local events and activities with fellow members, and help create life-changing opportunities for students through our Student Ambassador program. Most importantly, you can help carry forward a friendship that began in 1961 and continues to connect people across continents and generations.
Learn more about our rich history and help write the next chapter of this extraordinary friendship.
Our Origin & History
A Friendship That Began With Two Small-Town Editors
In 1951, the U.S. State Department produced a film titled Small Town Editor, intended to be viewed around the world as an example of how a small-town newspaper could contribute to democracy and strengthen its community. Featured in the film was Houstoun Waring, a prominent Littleton resident and editor of the Littleton Independent.
Half a world away, W.B. “Curly” Annabel, editor of the Bega District News in Bega, New South Wales, Australia, watched the film and recognized something familiar. Bega and Littleton shared more than small-town newspapers—they were both agricultural communities whose newspapers played an important role in connecting their citizens.
Curious about one another's communities, the two editors began corresponding. Their letters eventually led to visits, as each traveled to experience the other community firsthand. What began as a simple connection between two newspaper editors soon became something much more meaningful: a friendship between two communities separated by thousands of miles.
In 1960, President Dwight D. Eisenhower began encouraging communities around the world to establish sister-city relationships as a way to promote friendship, understanding, and peace between people of different nations. Waring and Annabel saw an opportunity to formalize the relationship they had already begun. In 1961, Littleton, Colorado, and Bega, New South Wales, officially became Sister Cities, making it one of the oldest sister cities in the United States. More than six decades later, the friendship they started continues.
A bronze plaques featuring the profiles of Houstoun Waring and Curly Annabel commemorates the enduring relationship they helped create. One plaque stands at Bega Park in downtown Littleton, just west of the railroad tracks at the intersection of Bega and Main streets. A duplicate plaque is displayed in Littleton Park in Bega's town center.
Separated by thousands of miles, the two plaques serve as a reminder of something remarkable: a friendship that began with a film, grew through correspondence and personal visits, and continues today through the people of Bega and Littleton.
Bega, Australia’s Hidden Gem
8,488 miles apart. Two communities. One extraordinary friendship.
Nestled in the beautiful Bega Valley on the far south coast of New South Wales, Bega is a community where Australian history, agriculture, food, and spectacular natural landscapes come together.
Bega's story stretches back thousands of years, beginning with the Yuin people, the Traditional Custodians of the land. European settlement followed in the 1800s, and Bega grew into an important agricultural center. Today, the Bega Valley remains known for its strong connection to the land, its welcoming communities, and its distinctive Australian character.
Bega is perhaps best known for its dairy farming and cheese-making heritage. The region's rich agricultural tradition helped give rise to Bega Cheese, now one of Australia's best-known food brands. What began with local dairy farmers has grown into a nationally recognized Australian company, while dairy farming remains an important part of the region's identity and economy.
But Bega is much more than farms and food. The surrounding Bega Valley offers an extraordinary variety of landscapes—from rolling green farmland and eucalyptus forests to rugged mountains, rivers, pristine beaches, and the spectacular coastline of the Sapphire Coast. The region is home to an abundance of Australian wildlife and provides opportunities for hiking, fishing, boating, swimming, wildlife watching, and exploring the outdoors.
Just a short distance from Bega are coastal communities and natural treasures along the Sapphire Coast, where forests meet the sea and secluded beaches, rocky headlands, lagoons, and marine environments create a landscape that feels quintessentially Australian.
For the members of Bega Littleton Sister City Exchange, however, Bega is more than a beautiful place on the map. It is a community of people who have shared a friendship with Littleton for more than six decades.
Since 1961, residents of Littleton and Bega have traveled across the world to visit one another, stay with one another's families, share meals and traditions, and build friendships that often last a lifetime.
Bega Littleton Sister City Exchange, Inc. (47-4761318) is a non-profit 501c3. The exchange is not funded by the City of Littleton, but does receive support in terms of periodic local partnership grants and arts and culture grants.
Become A Member
TRAVEL
Travel as part of the visiting delegation to Bega and stay with host families in Australia
LEARN
Learn about the culture of Australia through traveling, hosting, and connections
FUNDRAISE
Raise funds to host delegates from Bega and for travel expenses for our student ambassador
HOST
Host visiting delegates in your home and show Australians around Littleton and Colorado
COMMUNITY
Attend social and fundraising events, and enjoy fellowship with other sister city supporters
CONNECT
Create lasting bonds with people from Bega, our sister city in Australia