We thank our residents, tourism industry and visitors for providing quality feedback to the draft Northern Grampians Shire Council Local Area Action Plan.
Following the community consultation and the feedback we received, we have decided not to proceed with formally adopting the Local Area Action Plan.
The feedback indicated that the vision and strategic objectives outlined in the plan do not align with the interests and priorities of the community. The engagement revealed the diverse perspectives and aspirations within our community, underscoring that a one-size-fits-all solution for a tourism strategy is not feasible. While the resources in the document have been noted as particularly useful, they will serve as a reference for other tourism-related initiatives.
Moving forward, council will build upon existing work that began in 2022, focusing on developing individual tourism township strategies for our main towns. The Stawell and St Arnaud strategies have already been developed and we aim to roll out similar initiatives for Halls Gap and Great Western within the next 12 months, contingent on council resource allocation. The community will be involved throughout this process.