ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT QUARTERLY
Success for Queenstown was based on building
up a mix of tourism products to attract visitors
already coming to the region. By doing this, it has
been able to smooth the transition to an, albeit
significantly smaller, economic base than the one it
enjoyed at the peak of its mining period.
WALHALLA – TIME AND TRANSPORT
ROUTES TURN IT AROUND
some that the town is haunted. Buildings are being
restored to their early glory (including Walhalla’s
Star Hotel). There is also the unique mountain
location and picturesque streetscape with exotic
trees and interesting cottages.
In the early stages of this transition, tourism was
unviable. Access roads to Baw Baw Village (a
popular snow play destination) remain unsealed,
making Walhalla something of a dead end.
However, the opening of South Face Road in
2008 allowed vehicles to pass through Walhalla,
supporting a local daytrip and overnight visitor
economy, and an alternative accommodation
destination for Baw Baw skiers and hikers. It is
also supported by holiday home investment for
long-term visitors to Baw Baw Village.
Today, over 100,000 visitors come to Walhalla
each year, supporting accommodation, the local
shops, museum, vehicle hire, ski hire, and a
gift shop. In the broader region, 20% (84) of the
workforce is employed in Accommodation and
Food Services (in Walhalla alone, this is likely to
be higher, given the agricultural activity elsewhere
in the broader region).
Walhalla proves you do not need to be big to be
sustainable. Despite having an almost negligible
resident population, the improved connectivity
between the Latrobe Valley, Baw Baw and
Walhalla facilitated its successful revitalisation as
a tourism town. It took time, but it is now starting to
pay off.
MARGARET RIVER – FROM DECLINING
BUTTER FAT TO WORLD-RENOWNED WINE
Walhalla is 188km east of Melbourne at the bottom
of the Great Dividing Range. According to the 2011
Census, the town had a resident population of just
20 people. In the late Nineteenth Century when
gold was booming, it had a population of almost
4,000, supporting 10 hotels, three breweries and
seven churches.
The mines had all closed by 1915, and despite the
1910 construction of a railway to Moe, it could not
survive and continued to decline until the 1980s.
Over the last 20 years, tourism has revitalised
Walhalla. It focuses on its history, and the belief by
Margaret River’s current status as a world-
renowned wine and tourism region was not
inevitable. Before wine, the local economy was
somewhat depressed; its once-booming timber
industry was a distant memory; and the local
butterfat industry was chronically unprofitable.
A 1950s research paper had even dismissed
Margaret River’s viticultural potential. Claiming
high rainfall, cloud cover and disease risks made
it a poor locational choice compared to existing
operations in Pemberton and Manjimup, and other
potential areas in the SW region.
It was not until 1965 and 1966 when eminent
viticultural research scientist Dr John Gladstones
wrote two papers promoting the region’s potential,
comparing it with that of Bordeaux, did people
start to take notice. A Dr Kevin Cullen approached
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