Sustainable - Hobsons Bay

Provision of more public transport linking the key
tourism activity centres of Nelson Place with Altona
Beach/Pier St may be feasible, initially at peak times.
This could be extended as visitor demand for spending
a longer time in the City area increases.
While the priority of this Strategy is to move more
visitors to public transport there is potential to
improve car access to the visitor key hub if parking
infrastructure adjacent to the Nelson Place precinct
could be developed to accommodate visitors arriving
by car. Sites such as the vacant waterside land north
of the Nelson Place tennis courts or the Tennix site
may be suitable for development for car parking
without detracting from the amenity of the area.
5.5.2 Private investment
Private investment in tourism within Hobsons Bay has
been limited relative to other metropolitan Melbourne
councils. One identified inhibitor to private investment
identified through stakeholder consultation is the
impact of increasing land costs that make a return
from marginally profitable and seasonal tourism
businesses increasing unattractive relative to other land
use such as medium density housing.
The development of accommodation is noted as a
potential opportunity for private sector investment
in Section 5.3.2. Sites for boutique up-market
accommodation may primarily come from adaptive
re-use of existing buildings such as traditional hotels
and buildings within the Maritime Heritage Precinct.
A ‘holiday park’ however requires a much larger site
and finding such a site – ideally in an attractive natural
environment – will be more challenging.
5.6 Product development
Hobsons Bay is relatively well served with a variety of
tourism products.
The key challenge is to get
more use and value from many
of the existing tourism assets.
Product issues include:
• Limited opening times of community museums
and attractions due to low off peak demand and
reliance on volunteer labour.
• While the historic and heritage themes are strong,
there are limited products and experiences that are
packaged in a consumer friendly way.
• The Bay Trail provides a high quality cycling/
walking/promenading/running experience
but it lacks en route bicycle hire providers at peak
user periods.
• There is no packaging of a varied transport pass
ex the Melbourne CBD, eg for a rail–ferry day
pass.
• While Cheetham Wetlands is a World Ramsar site,
achieving a quality experience is very problematic
for the average visitor interested in bird watching.
• Flagship festivals and events are lacking.
The opportunity exists to facilitate more open
days for the museums to increase length of stay,
visitation during current trough periods and increased
profitability of businesses. Bicycle businesses in the
City could be encouraged to provide bike hire and
transport providers encouraged to develop cooperative
packages to stimulate demand.
Development of special interest packages for niche
markets such as bird watching (both for independent
visitors and through commercial operators) are
suited to development in and beyond Hobsons Bay.
Western Melbourne Tourism Inc can play a lead role
in facilitating development of across council products
and packages to attract visitors west of the city and
linked to the Great Ocean Road.
There is an opportunity to package and promote the
existing shopping opportunities attractive to visitors
and support new shopping products attractive to
visitors.
A strong Melbourne niche market is the dog owners’
market. There is the opportunity to promote Sunday
morning as the time to bring ‘Rover’ to one of the
‘dogs off lead’ beach sites, enjoy a coffee at a nearby
café and develop occasional special events at the sites
for dog owners. 29
Development of events linked to the key objectives
of this Strategy is an opportunity. A community based
event building on the maritime heritage theme timed
for the winter months could link with themes such as
traditional pubs and music; seafood chowder and other
food themes. Such an event could integrate with the
cultural and wider historic aspects of the community
that has evolved from a coastal/maritime and related
industries setting.
Scienceworks is the major built visitor attraction
for the City. Support from other tourism businesses
and attractions to provide compatible value adding
products for packaging for Probus, school and family
groups should be explored periodically.
The Council’s commitment to universal access also
provides an important opportunity for development
through this Strategy. Development of information
showing facilities for people with disabilities backed
by effective distribution will tap into a growing market
that is suited to off peak visitation.
5.7 Links to existing policies
& strategies
The Strategy sits comfortably within the Hobsons Bay
City Plan 2005–2008.
The triple bottom line
approach focuses on
achieving best practice by
balancing economic, social
and environmental goals
and accomplishments. The
purpose of this is to ensure
the future sustainability of the
municipality.
Under Civic Pride, Economic Development &
Tourism in the Plan the goal is to ‘deliver on our
tourism potential, foster community pride, and
stimulate employment and investment opportunities’.
Strategies identified for 2005–2009 are:
• Promote and support sustainable economic
development and tourism opportunities that
benefit the City and the local community.
• Encourage and support initiatives that create high
value employment opportunities.
• Build tourism potential by capitalising on
Hobsons Bay’s natural assets.
• Promote and enhance community pride and sense
of belonging.
• Promote the artistic and cultural life of the City.
• Prepare and implement the Urban Design
Frameworks for the activity centres and gateways
within the Municipality.
The key identified tourism related assets identified in
the Plan include:
• Vibrant communities with own unique character.
• Historic seaport of Williamstown and heritage
buildings.
• Over 20km of beaches & foreshore areas.
• Significant coastal wetlands, five creek systems,
remnant native grasslands, and important flora
and fauna habitats.
The 2004 report From the Bridge to the Beach
– Towards Sustainable Local Tourism 30 highlights the
community’s need for effective tourism management
while acknowledging the economic and tourism service
benefits that tourism provides. It aligns with this
strategy’s focus on protecting local natural and heritage
assets so that they continue to meet residents’ needs
and priorities into the future. It identifies weekend
parking is a key issue and emphasises the need for this
Strategy to cover environment and heritage protection,
improvements to signage, transport options, facilities
and community activities. It supports opportunities
for low impact tourism development that utilises the
existing features and assets of the area.
It notes the most popular tourism focus from a
community perspective would be heritage-based,
particularly maritime heritage. The document also
provides support for walking, coach and ferry tours
and environment based tours that are within the
framework of sustainable tourism.
The Newport and Altona Traders Plans (2005) and
Williamstown Business and Tourism Promotions
Inc are clearly linked to this Strategy through their
objective to stimulate business demand within their
precincts and through the advocacy, lobbying and
management opportunities this Strategy identifies.
The Parks Victoria plans for the TTPoint Cook
Coastal Park and Cheetham Wetlands indicates
opportunities for TTcooperative promotion of
the above assets particularly focusing on off peak
periods. The extension of the bike trail will be a
major opportunity to promote the Park and the
wider Council area to the large Melbourne leisure
cycling market including family markets. There is an
opportunity to generate PR coverage for Hobsons Bay
off the back of the Ramsar status of the wetlands and
the associated migratory bird story. Parks Victoria is
also implementing enhanced interpretive signage.
More widely the Hobsons Bay Strategy complements
strategies of Western Melbourne Tourism that
highlight cooperation to grow tourism in Western
Melbourne. Tourism Victoria’s Draft Melbourne
Metro Strategy 2005 also highlights the role Western
Melbourne Tourism can play in advocating for an
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One such seaside site in Sydney has a bi-monthly Sunday Dog Fun Day with stall sites leased from Council providing dog products, washes, coffee etc.
30
Williamstown, Newport & Spotswood Residents’ Association Inc.
22 23