A town Centre Rejuvenation Plan has been described as “fantastic” but should not ignore Naracoorte is a service centre with an economy underpinned by agriculture.

Explaining his concerns, Cr Peter Ireland believed expenditure featured in the plan – a maximum of $9.7 million in the first three years – had a focus on tourism at the expense of Naracoorte being a service centre for agriculture.

“Don’t get me wrong, I love this document. It’s fantastic, it’s great,” Cr Ireland said during a January briefing session regarding the plan.

But he was concerned the plan – endorsed by the previous council – was chasing tourism at the expense of other needs and priorities.

“It’s okay to have tourists come through here. I’d love to know how much money we make out of tourism,” he said.

For all the expenditure in the plan, Cr Ireland explained the World Heritage Caves were operated by State and Federal Governments – so the council did not receive any revenue or rates from them.

CEO Trevor Smart said the council made very little out of tourism, “but our role is attracting tourism”.

Cr Ireland said that apart from the staff who were employed at the Caves, “there was no other huge kickback for the community”.

Cr Darren Turner said he disagreed because Naracoorte had become “a destination, not a place you find by accident”.

Before Covid-19, when Queensland and NSW were in drought, he said a lot of people visited – they had not seen green grass for seven years.

Cr Turner said even now 80 per cent of the turnover at MiniJumbuk was from tourists.

Revealing the turnover “on a good day” he said it was a lot for a shop that was open seven days a week.

“We’ve seen growth in tourism over the last five years to the point Naracoorte is a destination,” he said. “People love this town.

“If you wanted to start a business in Naracoorte, you’ve either got a service industry…or a tourist industry…you could make money out of tourism in this town. It is a tourist town.”

Cr Damien Ross said he could back that up as for 15 years he had a retail store in Smith St.

Cr Ireland said he wasn’t meaning tourism was a lost exercise, “I was just saying we had to keep it in perspective”.

Cr Turner said tourism was “a big business that people don’t see”.

“We have people come in and say they are going to stay, they’re going to do something, go somewhere, they’re going to eat somewhere, they’re going to shop somewhere,” he said.

“It puts a lot of money into the community.”

He believed people in the farming and service industry might not be aware of how big tourism was.

“I don’t touch base with how many tractors are sold and how much grain is worth – I don’t know,” Cr Turner said.

“But I’m saying people that aren’t in the tourist industry don’t get a chance to touch it and feel it. “

But he believed tourism was worth a lot more than what most people thought.

Planning and compliance manager Paul McRostie agreed. He said the rejuvenation plan was “about creating experiences” and capturing visitors to spend time in Naracoorte, rather than bypassing it.

Cr “Crash” Downward highlighted many of the attractions within an hour and a half of Naracoorte.

Additionally, he said the area had some of the best wines in the world and one of the best regional golf courses in Australia.

“Crikey, we’ve got all the reasons in the world for people to come here,” Cr Downward said.

Cr Turner said that outside money was what was wanted – and tourists did like spending it.

Cr Ireland said he was not against tourism, but he thought other visitors coming to the town were important too.

He referred to a busload of trainee nurses – some wanted to move to Naracoorte, but they had to find accommodation and their partners needed a job as well.

He repeated he wanted the tourists, but the council ought not concentrate on tourism at the expense of what was needed for those already here.

Cr Abigail Goodman said the tourists were already here “with something like 75,000 ticket sales a year and projected to reach 90,000.

“I think this plan is about what are the tweaks we can make. It doesn’t have to be a big spend in order to capitalise on what we’ve already got.”

Cr Turner said that was “what we can do better” – attracting and retaining people and finding combinations.

Mr McRostie said he thought Cr Ireland was not against tourism, “but we also needed to be mindful of trying to recruit professionals”.

Mr Turner said that was something “we can do better” – attracting, retaining and finding accommodation for people.

Mr Smart said: “We can’t forget what has created Naracoorte – the agriculture industry and the service centre for that, the health centre – it’s all part of the jigsaw.”

Mr McRostie said another part of the plan related to a housing strategy.

This article appeared in the Naracoorte Community News.