NSW – Vic regional tourism collaboration

Five shires & two states present a new touring route

I have just discovered the Snowy Valleys Way Project – a major regional tourism project with the goal of “a high-quality tourism experience that attracts more people to the region and leaves them feeling glad they came and wanting to come back”.

Gundagai’s ‘Dog On The Tuckerbox‘ sits at the northern end with the goldrush town of Beechworth and the vineyards of Rutherglen at the southern end.

$675,000.00 in funding has been found – half from AusIndustry’s Australian Tourism Development Program and the balance from the five participating Shires.

The NSW Shires Gundagai, Tumut and Tumbarumba plus the Victorian Shires of Towong and Indigo are providing an alternate touring route to the Hume Highway in southeastern Australia.

The project allows the 5 Shires to use each other’s strengths and resources as well as providing opportunities for local businesses to expand and diversify, and for new businesses to come into the region. The ‘tourism product’ of the area includes:

• The Dog on the Tuckerbox;
• The country that spawned the legend of The Man From Snowy River;
• Mt Kosciuszko & Kosciuszko National Park;
• The Snowy Mountains Scheme;
• The valleys of the Snowy Mountains;
• The Murray River upstream of any dams;
• ‘Fantastic’ food & wine;
• Batlow’s ‘magnificent’ apples, cherries & stonefruit;
• Pine Mountain – the largest monolith in the world;
• Brumbies, kangaroos, echidnas, wombats & abundant bird life;
• Historic Beechworth & the Ned Kelly Trail;
• Yackandandah – filming location for the movie “Strange Bedfellows”.

The combined project management team recognises that tourists have no boundaries so neither do they – no Shire boundaries, no State boundaries, just one continuous Snowy Valleys experience.

Instead of promoting one destination over another – often a problem for regional collaborative efforts – visitors are being invited to follow their passions.

The route is meant to be ‘user friendly’ which means new, accurate touring maps, good signage throughout the five Shires, and clearly defined start and end points. Mud-maps will show travellers exactly where to go to indulge in their own personal adventures across the region.

The project will tie together:

• State and National Park
• Wineries & good food
• Festivals
• Golf
• Fishing
• Australian history – modern and indigenous
• Wildlife
• Pub culture
• Nature-based adventures – as mild or as wild as you like
• Walking tracks, trails and rail trails
• Romance
• Art and artists
• Skiing

Sounds like a good model for lots of regional areas. Is your region doing something similar or radically different? PWF would love to hear about it.