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The Border Watch : November 1st 2013
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8 OPINION EDITORIAL NEWS today the $2.8m overhaul of marine facilities could collapse is a signifi cant setback for the region’s multi-million dollar commercial rock lobster sector and the Port MacDonnell community. With plans in the pipeline for many years, it is disappointing the project might fall over at the last hurdle. Despite the project being rejected for government funding in the past, a $2.5m funding pledge earlier this year from both federal and state government’s breathed new life into the project. The project is not only critical for the commercial fi shing sector, but the thousands of recreational fi shers who use the facilities each year. Given the importance of the overhaul, the new Liberal Government should not hastily reject the funding pledge made by the former Labor Government. With such projects needing to pass strict departmental criteria to receive this funding, the fl edging Liberal Government should not ignore all the work that has gone into preparing such applications. It is disappointing that the arrival of the new government on the federal landscape is already potentially affecting two major projects in the region and the leaders must ensure they do not put good developments at risk as they overhaul programs put in place by Labor. The proposed biomass plant at Tarpeena - worth up to $105m - could also be in doubt because of the government’s swift decision to scrap the Clean Energy Finance Corporation. Although the government is keen to shut the door on Labor’s political legacy and many of its key policies, as well as reigning in unsustainable spending, scrapping such funding arrangements has the potential to dramatically affect regional communities that are crying out for development. Government representatives such as new Liberal member Tony Pasin must make their voice heard in the halls of power and rally behind these two projects on behalf of the region and should not just tow the party line. We simply cannot allow such opportunities to disappear. COMMENT Limestone Coast, ‘so, where the bloody hell are you?’ FROM THE FRONT PORCH F GGR G FR GR GREENWOOD GRAHAM THE rocky relationship which exists between the South Australian Tourism Commission and the South East district has continued with the release of the controversial new logo to promote the Limestone Coast. SCOTT GROUP OF COMPANIES 538600 8 - The Border Watch, Friday, November 1, 2013 SARAH ROSS Millicent No, you don’t hear much on the radio so I think more could be done. JORDAN LUFF Naracoorte Yes, there are plenty of advertisements on television. PAULINE WATSON Mount Gambier No, we have no museums and there is no kiosk at the Valley Lake. Councils and the government need to make more funding available for tourism in the South East. For some time there has been a level of discrimination by state and regional tourism bodies against the Mount Gambier district. At state level, glossy magazines are published on a regular basis highlighting the benefi ts South Australia has to offer visitors to our state. Only trouble is, Mount Gambier is rarely mentioned, despite the enormous funding contributions made by various local councils. The Barossa, Copper Coast - you have to guess where that is - and other areas of the state are all well catered for and promoted in various states and overseas in a very costly, glossy publication. What follows has become almost an annual saga. When the new magazine is published there is a huge outcry, as once more Mount Gambier and district, including other areas of the South East, are left off the “map”. Perhaps locals can now understand how Tasmania feels. Over the years local tourist operators, STREET SWEEPER Do you think enough is being done to promote tourism in the South East? moteliers, caravan park operators and others have been arguing a case for a fairer and more equitable promotion deal for this area. In the latest controversy, last week the South Australian Tourism Commission’s creative agency designed a logo for the Limestone Coast as part of the state’s Destination Action Plan. It failed to make a great fi rst impression and like local Member Don Pegler, many are asking what it cost to produce. And, as he rightly suggests, “it would have cost a fair bit of money”. A waste of money is probably a correct and accurate assessment. According to Liberal candidate Troy Bell, locals should have had some input with the design. He also questions whether the cost was worth the outcome, further suggesting the money would have been better utilised by giving it directly to local tourism operators. Others might ask what use a new and expensive logo will have when the district is never promoted by the state tourism body, making the logo redundant. The logo itself is quite bland and simply has two words - Limestone Coast. When I returned from Western Australia in 2003, I told people I was moving back to Mount Gambier in the South East of South Australia. They knew where Mount Gambier was, but even if they didn’t know the location of the South East they could simply guess by its name that it was in the south east of the state. People outside our region, particularly those in Adelaide, have great diffi culty understanding the geography of our state. Many Adelaide people and others north of the Adelaide Hills have no idea where Mount Gambier is located, with some believing it is somewhere in Victoria. Bearing that in mind, what hope has anyone got trying to understand where the Limestone Coast is, let alone trying to encourage people to come to a place where even the locals are confused about where it exactly starts and fi nishes? There are differing views on this, with some believing it goes beyond Meningie, Keith and Bordertown, even up as far as Coonalpyn where the use of the word “coast” seems ridiculous. The idea of inventing names for regions such as Limestone Coast and Copper Coast is just a trendy gimmick which leads to the question whether it has put one extra person in a bed or one extra dollar in the till for local tourism. Can anyone honestly claim they have heard someone say “we are going for a holiday in the Limestone Coast”? Outside of the South East, no-one has ever heard of it. Even though the Limestone Coast logo is pretty ordinary, perhaps a little tolerance towards its designers is required, because after viewing their efforts, it is obvious they have no idea where it is or what the region offers. It gives great credence to the Australian tourism campaign that made Lara Bingle famous and that catchy line, “So, where the bloody hell are you?” That could apply to the Limestone Coast. VISIT US ONLINE borderwatch.com.au
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