South Gippsland Action Group (SGAG) is encouraging the Council to talk to the community
about future items for the Council Plan due to be updated later in the year.

Port Welshpool Underwater Observatory and Museum
South Gippsland Action Group (SGAG) is encouraging the Council to talk to the community
about future items for the Council Plan due to be updated later in the year.  We want to see new tourism infrastructure and growth in the Shire to ensure employment, prosperity and a fairer rating system.  Council has already invested substantially in the rebuild of the Port Welshpool Long Jetty.  In addition Council has spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on the adjacent Caravan Park.   Council has also had to support the Port Welshpool Maritime museum.   However the jetty work is only half the job. This great jetty could be the Victorian equivalent of the Busselton Jetty in West Australia.  That facility draws upwards of 500,000 visitors per annum.  People might say those sort of numbers are a dream but we already have that number visiting Wilsons Promontory.  This year we have seen the introduction of the Wildlife Sea Tours from Tidal River.  A logical extension would be an underwater observatory at the Long Jetty.  This builds on the experiences available to visitors to the Shire.

The cost of the Busselton Jetty Underwater Observatory in today’s values is probably around $8 million dollars.  We have the advantage that much of the facility could be pre-fabricated at Barry Beach, floated around the point to the Jetty and then sunk into position.  Ideally, the museum could be relocated to a new Jetty entry facility similar to the Busselton Jetty Village. 

We need Shire residents to request senior staff and out-of-town administrators to stop planning a new admin building and library building in Leongatha and to invest our rates in a facility that will make a return for our investment.  At present the staff and Administrators have been busy over-turning many of the great ideas that the previous Councils had worked to develop on your behalf.  People – you need to get involved!