Economy
How to benefit from Tassie’s tourism boom but not bugger up what tourists came for. Pokies blackmail
*Pic: Alexandra suspension bridge in the Cataract Gorge. Pic from Wikipedia.
Most afternoons, I walk down the path to my favourite swimming-hole in the world and dive in. And almost every day, I find someone or other — local or visitor alike — who remarks that there’s nowhere in the world quite like the Cataract Gorge. I can’t help but agree.
Peacocks and black cockatoos shriek at each other, while wallabies and fairy wrens dart in and out of the undergrowth; exotic sequoias, cypresses and rhododendrons stick out like dogs’ nuts against the dusty brown backdrop of native casuarinas and blackwoods. A rotunda sits among the ferns, by a quaint café selling ice-creams and Devonshire tea. Tourists and joggers jostle each other on a path running along the cliffs above the South Esk River, as the river runs out towards the town of Launceston.
Over the dark blue river basin, the set-pieces of a chairlift quietly move. An electric blue pool sits next to it; on sunny days this summer, both bodies of water will be busy with the bodies of young and old, of all demographics.
German backpackers dive in next to swarms of flirting teenagers who go to school a ten minute walk away. Migrant parents watching their kids learn to swim sit in the shade between two trees, where a slackliner plies his trade. A couple of tradies just knocked off swim alongside professors from the University of Tasmania.
All of this is within a short walk from the city centre of Launceston. In fact, I can reach the entrance of the Gorge from my bedroom, by foot, in less than a minute.
It’s also free.
Launceston (pronounced LON-ces-ton, for the uninitiated) is a charming little city with plenty of Georgian architecture, close proximity to good wine, and somewhat of a chip on its shoulder. While Tassie has emerged somewhat from the “Tipping Point” purgatory (riding on the shoulders of David Walsh and a tourist influx), Launceston still suffers from the odd empty shopfront in the CBD. and a stagnant population. We don’t have MONA, and we know it.
Tourists, of course, are coming to Launceston too. Record numbers keep flying into our humble airport on the outskirts of town, skidding onto the tarmac with hazy blue Ben Lomond behind them. The Cataract Gorge is likely the first place they’ll go. It’s a source of consternation for those observing our town’s pecuniary situation is that they might have a great day at the swimming-hole without contributing much to our economy at all.
Okay, they might jump on the chairlift ($15 return), have a crack at the Devonshire tea ($7.50) or even opt for a bag of chips ($4). But they may alternatively spend nothing during their time at the Cataract Gorge at all, a feat which seems to have come to concerned attention of councillors and developers alike.
The local council, understandably, is trying to work out how to maximise the tourist dollar in our fair town. And they aren’t the only ones. All around Tassie, we are trying to work out how to make the most of the fact that all of a sudden folks are coming here in droves, to taste leatherwood honey and drink pinot noir and climb Jurassic mountains and visit colonial gaols.
I work in the tourism sector and I am well pleased with the idea that more punters means I get paid more to go out bushwalking with them more often. But I also think it’s unwise to put all our eggs in the tourism basket, or (to labour the metaphor) to try and pump the hen with hormones to make it plop out more eggs altogether.
The next step for the Gorge is still in the balance. The council has expressed its desire to ‘reimagine’ the site, and Launceston developers JAC Group — headed by octogenarian winemaker Joseph Chromy — have come to the party with an ambitious plan. JAC Group is currently redeveloping the adjacent Penny Royal Gunpowder Mill, and want to include a gondola from their site to the heart of the Gorge as part of it.
BERT SPINKS EARLIER on Tasmanian Times …
• David Walsh, MONA blog: Stuff we are planning to do There is an old Soviet joke that insists that ‘the future is certain. It is the past that is unpredictable’. Despite my endless rambling about the pointlessness of prediction, I thought I’d highlight a bunch of projects that Mona has on the go, for the self-serving reason that I want to establish our tourism credentials in the light of Federal Hotel’s tactic of promising expenditure conditionally on their pokies licence being extended. Mona is here for good (in at least one sense). None of these projects are contingent on the casino going ahead (including the casino), but Monaco might make it a little easier to pay for all this. However, they are contingent on many other things, like planning and building approval. And me not shuffling off this mortal coil. (I heard that Rene Hidding, when told that I was planning for the consequences of ‘being hit by a bus’, said: ‘That won’t happen. I’ve had a word with our bus drivers and they are going to be very careful’.) As an aside, when I first opened Mona, I expected to see some services (coffee shops, restaurants etc.) cropping up in the area. I don’t know why that hasn’t happened, except that there may be some zoning issues, but Local Pizza recently opened in Claremont, and it is exactly the sort of business I was hoping for. I hope it is the vanguard of more quality, consumer-oriented businesses to come. So, start selling stuff in the Glenorchy region. I’m buying. For us, the first cab off the rank will be an extension to the gallery to house four James Turrell works. As James’ works always are, these will be light works, but not lightweight works. Also in the extension will be a bar and restaurant, possibly serving tapas, which will double as another function venue. The whole thing cantilevers off the tunnel between the museum and the Round House. It would extend about 20 metres over the Derwent …
• ABC: MONA owner David Walsh expects work on new hotel to start within 12 months
• ABC: Tasmanian bushfire risk ‘double’ by 2100 if climate emissions continue at current rate: report • Read the Media Release on TT HERE
• Andrew Wilkie: The Federal Group, dodgy deals and blackmail $100m of additional investment in hospitality and tourism in Tasmania would obviously be very welcome. Unless of course that money comes from the losses of problem gamblers, or an extension of the dodgy monopoly license to operate all the poker machines in the State. For the Federal Group to insist that additional investment in Tasmania is contingent upon an extension of their pokies license is nothing less than attempted blackmail, simple as that. It’s way beyond time for a Tasmanian government to stop being manipulated by the poker machine industry and to stand up for proper process and the public interest.
• Cassy O’Connor: Federal Hotels’ Refurbishment Project
• Peter Gutwein: Federal Hotels’ Refurbishment Project
• Pete Godfrey in Comments:The reason a lot of people come to Tasmania is for its natural beauty. Places like the gorge are developed enough. The gorge is beautiful and is special. Do we need to put a value on everything, why do some people think everything on the planet needs to be changed so that a few can make money from them. The more Tasmania remains quaint, as natural as possible and stuck in a time warp, the better. The best way to attract Tourists is to be ourselves, to be different.