Shire of Roebourne Local Planning Strategy

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Shire of Roebourne Local Planning StrategyTechnical Report A1: Economic Development StrategyThe Geraldton Universities Centre's objective is to facilitate, deliver, promote and provide access touniversity education for people residing in the Mid-West. It was established in 2002, has been in its ownfacilities since 2006, and has 187 graduates and 180 current student enrolments. The population of thewider Geraldton region is around 44,000; the Pilbara population is around 63,000 people.The University of Western Australia is examining the possibility of establishing facilities in the Pilbara tobolster research, professional development and undergraduate outreach and support. A UWA PilbaraTaskforce is assisting UWA’s Energy and Minerals Institute (EMI) to examine the many areas of theUniversity’s research, professional development and outreach capabilities that could be delivered throughUWA Pilbara. Some potential areas include energy and minerals, the Centre for Rock Art Research andManagement, the School of Indigenous Studies, the Oceans Institute, the Centre for Social Impact, theRural Clinical School of WA and Aspire UWA.The Regional Australia Institute regional comparisons show that the Pilbara has some way to go in theoverall level of its secondary education if it is to be competitive and resilient. The recent expansion ofKarratha Senior High School upper school facilities gives promise. The increasing size of this school andof Hedland Senior High School gives opportunity to develop a wide range of programs and develop areasof excellence in secondary education in the Pilbara. An objective is to get these schools to rank amongstthe highest in WA in key educational areas; this would help make the two main Pilbara cities a residentialplace of choice, similar to Perth suburbs with high ranking secondary schools. Boarding facilities for atleast one of these schools would further widen their appeal and enable them to fill a wider regional role.An objective for the Shire is for the Karratha Senior High School to increase its size to over 1,000 students(it is currently around 630) and to become the highest standard regional secondary school in WA. Aboarding facility at the school would assist his aim.7.2 TourismThe growth of the tourism sector will be an urgent action for the Shire from around 2014 on as theconstruction phase of major projects winds down. Demand for informal FIFO accommodation hasunderpinned the viability of many of the short-stay establishments in the Shire. There is likely to becapacity and need to change orientation to tourist demand to maintain business turnover. Note that thiswill spill over to many other areas of economic activity in the Shire, including retail and food services inthe same period.There are many opportunities to increase tourism as a proportion of the total economy from its currentfairly low base. In investigating how this might be achieved it is useful to look at the five ‘A’s of tourism,namely: attractions, amenity, access, accommodation and activities.Attractions:A number of tourist attractions are identified in the Shire or directly accessed through the Shire, including: Cossack; Old Roebourne Gaol; Yaburara Heritage Trail; Millstream; Karijini; Mt Herbert, Wittenoom Road, Chichester Ranges, Roebourne;57
Shire of Roebourne Local Planning StrategyTechnical Report A1: Economic Development StrategyBurrup Peninsula;Stairway to the Moon from Hearson's Cove;The Dampier Archipelago; andThe Montebello Islands.Many of these are world-class. The Shire has attractions that can form the basis of a viable and largertourist industry.Amenity:Tourist amenity is variable across the shire – it is not as advanced or comprehensive as some of itscompetitor locations.Access:In comparative terms accessibility to the Pilbara is very good – it has good regional road connectionsand, importantly, a busy airport with a range of interstate and intrastate connections and prospects ofinternational connections. Airfares are comparatively high and if a discount airline were to operate theroute it would be a tourist advantage.Accommodation:The Shire is not a major established tourist destination in the way that, for example, Broome or Exmouthare. There are a number of reasons why this might be the case: Accommodation has been difficult to get and expensive - a FIFO effect; The region is not prompted as a tourist destination the same way that certain other regionsare; and consequently; and There are few tourist –oriented resorts and facilities, with a small ‘resort’ and caravan parksat Point Samson being the notable exception – but these are a small fraction of the rangeand scale of tourist accommodation that is available in other similar localities. Bycomparison, Broome has a wide and extensive range of tourist accommodation andtherefore gets much more attention.There is some evidence that accommodation shortage has led to a major component of the northerntourist market, namely the ‘grey nomad’ caravan and camping trade, to by-pass Nickol Bay and traveldirect from Broome to Exmouth 20 .Activities:Tourist activities are comparatively underdeveloped in the Shire. In large measure they have bencrowded out by the activities of the resource industries. An example is the very low availability of boatsfor tourist operations to off-shore islands in preference for resources off-shore work. This is anopportunity for expansion.The Shire already undertakes or sponsors a range of events which are becoming drawcards, includingCossack Art Awards, Rd Earth Arts Festival’ NAIDOC week, Karratha Community Celebration plus theFeNaCLNG festival.Opportunity:There are many opportunities for an expansion of the tourism sector:20TNS Social Research, Study of Caravan Park Development in Western Australia, 200658
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Shire of Roebourne Local Planning Strategy

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