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House of Assembly - Fifty-Fifth Parliament, First Session (55-1)
2024-06-18 Daily Xml
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Limestone Coast

Mr McBRIDE (MacKillop) (14:38): My question is for the Minister for Tourism. Could the minister please explain what the minister observed last week in her tour through the Limestone Coast? With your leave, sir, and that of the house, I will explain.

Leave granted.

Mr McBRIDE: I had the fortunate pleasure of meeting with the minister and seeing the minister go through the Limestone Coast and observe the Coorong, the Cape Jaffa Lighthouse, Robe and the Naracoorte Caves and then go on to the Coorong, the Coonawarra and further down south. Topics like the Great Ocean Road, the LIV Golf, Gather Round and capturing Victorian funds were many of the things that were mentioned. Could the minister please explain this?

The Hon. Z.L. BETTISON (Ramsay—Minister for Tourism, Minister for Multicultural Affairs) (14:39): Thank you so much for giving my answer, member for MacKillop. Can I just say thank you so much for being able to join me for a key part of that three-day trip down to our beautiful Limestone Coast.

As you said, I started my journey at Kingston, which was the first time I had actually had the opportunity to go up to the lighthouse and hear the story, but most important was to hear the dedication of the volunteers, who are very committed to the National Trust, to invite people there. I understand it's particularly popular during school holidays with the co-located caravan park not far away. Can I just say the signage in Kingston is outstanding, inviting people to move around the town, particularly obviously to get up to the coast and to enjoy the history and the stories that we have there.

The opportunity went on to go to Robe to have a roundtable collaboration where we had stakeholders come on. What was really fantastic was that I had people from the tourism industry who were different to the groups I had met in previous years. They have some new product that is coming in to the area. As much as it's great to go and have a schnitzel at the Cali Inn afterwards, we are seeing some new investment there as well.

As you have raised, there are some key issues about the Limestone Coast; and Robe, being very popular, of course, during the summer peak months and how we stretch that out. For me, it's a really beautiful part of South Australia, which has a unique selling point in the fact that it's so close to the western area of Victoria. We know that people are coming along the Great Ocean Road, and Victoria has a nice little loop area for people to go back to Victoria. What we want to do is encourage them to come through.

It was shared with me how many people are often going to Kangaroo Island and making the trip through Melbourne, through the Limestone Coast and on to KI. Because they often stay for one night, we want them to stay for two nights. So part of the opportunity that presents to us is to have more product, more tourism product, and particularly a lot of interest in adventure tourism. Often the conversation is, 'Could this be the Queenstown of New Zealand?' We could make the Limestone Coast with its caves and its sinkholes something really unique, but we also have an amazing amount of traffic coming through.

What they did love is when we did have great events here like LIV Golf and Gather Round, and they did benefit from people staying there before and after. I say Mount Gambier council went out of its way to have a Before the Bounce program. They had lots of activations, lots of visits from former players. They want to expand that even more to make sure people are staying throughout the Limestone Coast before and after that event.

We met on a very cold morning at Naracoorte at the caves; 97,000 people went to visit the caves last year. It's a really important key part of our education of our great heritage. We think we might work on a new master plan. I will talk with the Deputy Premier about that because we haven't had one for a while. It could be definitely a key catalyst—it is already a catalyst for people to come—to show the whole location of wine and the great produce around.

I got to visit Wynns Estate at Coonawarra and at Penola I got to meet George the Farmer; the concept store is there. What a story that is to tell—the books, the educational program, and of course the TV snippets on ABC. A lot of people are disconnected from primary production and horticulture, and George the Farmer tells the story of why it's important. I love the fact that his wife is Dr Ruby with her PhD in agronomy. We went on to Mount Gambier and had a round table with the Limestone Coast LGA. It was a wonderful trip, and I can't wait to follow up with action.

The SPEAKER: Just a reminder for people heading to the South-East that it's almost glow-in-the-dark mushroom time at Glencoe. Just as soon as we get the big rains down at Glencoe, the home of the mighty Murphys, those mushrooms will be glowing.

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