Transcript with Instructions Within the Next Couple of Weeks

T RANSCRIPT ENVIRONMENT AND NATURAL RESOURCES COMMITTEE Inquiry into heritage tourism and ecotourism in Victoria Halls Gap — 18 March 2014 Members Mr T. Bull Mr J. Pandazopoulos Ms J. Duncan Ms L. Wreford Mr D. Koch Chair: Mr D. Koch Deputy Chair: Mr J. Pandazopoulos Staff Executive Officer: Dr G. Gardiner Research Officer: Dr K. Butler Witness Mr J. Nolan, Director, Economic and Community, Northern Grampians Shire Council. 18 March 2014 Environment and Natural Resources Committee 335 The DEPUTY CHAIR — I welcome Jim Nolan, director of infrastructure and tourism, from the Northern Grampians Shire Council. As a formality, Jim, all evidence taken at this hearing is protected by parliamentary privilege as provided by the Constitution Act 1975 and is further subject to provisions of the Parliamentary Committees Act 2003. Any comments you make outside the hearing will not be afforded such privilege. All evidence given today is being recorded, and, as a witness, you will be provided with a proof version of the transcript with instructions within the next couple of weeks. We thank you very much for joining with us and have allocated up to half an hour for your presentation and questions and answers, so over to you. Mr NOLAN — Thank you very much for the opportunity, Chair. Just to make a correction to my title in the first instance, I am the director of economic and community at Northern Grampians Shire. The DEPUTY CHAIR — We will correct the record. Mr NOLAN — Titles change from time to time. Thank you for the opportunity to present. I have got a small slideshow, which really just presents some talking points. I will proceed through this. Overheads shown. Mr NOLAN — The tourism sector contributes about $78 million in output to the Northern Grampians shire and employs around 472 people. This is as at the start of this year. These figures are taken from a program, REMPLAN, which council subscribes to, which identifies in this case that tourism is the fifth largest sector from the point of view of employment and the fourth largest sector in terms of output. I have some copies of both the employment and output data, so there are two separate reports. From a Northern Grampians point of view, that is significant. In the regional context it was reported in the Grampians Tourism submission as an output of $224 million for the Grampians tourism region, which comprises the five councils that make up the Grampians Tourism Board. Essentially the tourism sector comprises a range of retail, accommodation, attractions, and a number of other specific enterprises. In relation to the council’s investment in tourism, Northern Grampians Shire Council is one of the small rural councils in Victoria. It is effectively a financially unsustainable council because of the large infrastructure assets it is responsible for and council’s limited ability to raise revenue with its current rate base. There has been a range of documentation that can support that, but effectively council sees that it is important to make a contribution to tourism because of the contribution it makes to the local economy. The council is a member of Grampians Tourism — one of the five councils — and with other partners. Council operates visitor information centres at Halls Gap, St Arnaud and Stawell. It supports tourism associations and local tourism enterprises. Council’s operating budget for tourism is in the order of $400 000 a year. For some that might seem a small amount of money; for a small rural council it is a considerable amount of money. Council’s ability to continue to provide that level of support to the sector is an ongoing concern to the council. Council is investigating ways in which it can continue to provide support for the sector with the amount of money that it actually has. Council also contributes capital investment into projects which support the sector in Halls Gap. Recently we constructed a visitor information centre, which is a fabulous building within the heart of Halls Gap. We are in the process of constructing a community hub adjoining the visitor information centre, which we expect will generate a significant amount of life into the heart of Halls Gap and contribute to the overall product that Halls Gap has to offer. Whilst the hub project at this point in time is a $1.75 million build, with the construction of the visitor information centre that occurred a couple of years ago it is well in excess of $2 million. It is a project that was made possible with council, state and commonwealth contributions. Nevertheless I guess it was a significant contribution from local government. Council has also developed a tourism sector plan, and I will provide a copy of the sector plan in the attachments for you. This is simply a copy of it, and this is a document that council engaged consultants to prepare in 2010. It provides some direction for the council in terms of how it supports the sector and how it assists in growing and attracting investment. In addition to those things, council provides a number of other services that support the sector in broad terms. We have an events assistance program and an events coordinator, which is a significant contribution to the tourism market. 18 March 2014 Environment and Natural Resources Committee 336 I will speak briefly about nature-based tourism in the Grampians, and I do not purport to be an expert in this area. Council is a member of Grampians Tourism. We have a very active partnership with Grampians Tourism, and there are a number of projects that Grampians Tourism is pursuing. Council supports the strategic plan of Grampians Tourism, and a number of those projects include the peaks trail, the destination management plan and the digital strategy, as well as their marketing focus. The Instagrampians example is a good example of their marketing initiative. We are very pleased to be working with Grampians Tourism. We think they have made a significant contribution to the industry here. The stats from Tourism Research Australia recently showed that Grampians Tourism is having an impact in the region and increasing overnight stays and visitors to the region. That information is available on the Grampians Tourism website. There are copies there if you would like to refer to those, but I do not propose to speak any further to that. I will speak a little bit about the destination management plan because that is a significant project that Grampians Tourism has on its plate at the moment. Council is currently part of the project control group for that plan. That plan identifies a number of opportunities and gaps in tourism, and we expect that will speak directly to the terms of reference for this committee. The destination management plan seeks to ultimately attract increased investment in tourism in the region, and that is based on evidence supported by significant research about the market. On heritage tourism I will speak briefly about the Goldfields — Australia’s Premier Heritage Region project. I am not sure if you have been introduced to this, but this is collateral information that relates to the project. This project was initiated a couple of years ago. Essentially the purpose of this project was to preserve and protect heritage assets within the region. The region comprises 13 local governments within central Victoria and part of the objective is to ‘treasure the best of the golden past’, building on our historical links with the goldfields. It aims to stimulate growth in townships and villages across the region. It requires capital investment, both public and private, and research into this project identified that there are significant economic benefits to be obtained from it. One body of research identified that in the long term it has the capacity to build 9000 jobs, so it is not a small project. I guess we can talk about the barriers to implementation and buy-in. But it is certainly a significant project that was initiated but is having some difficulty gaining traction, so I just put that there for you as the example. The DEPUTY CHAIR — Why would that be? What are the difficulties in getting traction? Mr NOLAN — I do not propose to be an expert on the project itself. I was one of the 13 councils shown on the screen there that were members of it. The project requires significant capital investment — both public and private. Public investment was identified — there were a number of opportunities to improve access to our heritage assets and improve those heritage assets to make them attractive for visitors. There have been great applications made. I know the Northern Grampians shire made an application to the commonwealth through the RDAF 4 program, which was unsuccessful. Had that been successful, that may have been a catalyst to stimulate further investment from the private sector. My understanding and expectation of the project is that if there is public investment in these assets — and many of the heritage assets are public assets — then that would provide incentive for private investors to make a contribution to improve the product as well. Capital investment is one thing. I think obviously buy-in is another. Where there is a large region like that it is often difficult to get all of the partners on board with the same project and the same priorities. It is a truly regional project, and yet it required 13 bodies which all report to elected representatives to share a similar vision. Not all the councils would do that, given that you have elected members turning over every four years.

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