Looking for a landmark
Geelong’s a mighty place to live but it needs a standout attraction, too, if it is to become a great tourist hub
AS Geelong turns to tourism as its saviour, Rob McLennan says we need to make sure the city really is a great place to visit.
GEELONG has an identity problem.
Whenever I ask “outsiders’’ for their thoughts on Geelong — and I seem to do this a lot, for some reason — the response is almost always the same: Geelong, they say, is the Cats.
This is great news for the Geelong Football Club but for me it presents a worrying issue for Geelong: our AFL team should be representing the city, not the other way around.
In the past 15 years Geelong has undergone a stunning transformation, from its world-class waterfront to the redevelopment of Kardinia Park as a true AFL-quality venue.
Developers are tapping into the growing demand for apartment living in the CBD, while out in the ’burbs new homes are springing up in places with fancy names such as Warralily, Armstrong Creek and Grand Lakes.
It’s a great place to live. But as manufacturing jobs begin to disappear and we look more towards tourism as our city’s likely saviour, we need to ask ourselves if Geelong is a great place to visit.
My view is that it’s just OK. Good if the weather is sunny.
But it needs to be much more: to truly prosper in the 21st century Geelong needs to be great. And for that we need great things. Things that will encourage people to come and stay and take the time to see all of the other things that Geelong has to offer.
When we think of the Gold Coast we think of theme parks. Sydney invokes images of the Harbour Bridge and the Opera House. They are symbolic destinations that are welded to the names of their host cities. They are attractions that most people feel they must experience at least once.
While Geelong has plenty of things that are nice to see, our city lacks a distinctive must-see or must-do. Geelong does not have a standout attraction, and it needs one. Without it the city will always be just a day visit or a weekend away.
Darryn Lyons believes Geelong needs to embrace big thinking if it is to achieve its true potential. He is right.
We need to stop being frightened of talking about large scale ideas such as theme parks and Guggenheim museums. We should embrace the challenges presented by these kinds of projects rather than shying away from them, as has happened so many times in the past.
It is depressing to think of the number of great Geelong ideas that have fallen by the wayside in the past 10 or 15 years alone.
Former mayor Ken Jarvis worked extraordinarily hard to secure an Australian Guggenheim in the 1990s. He came tantalisingly close but failed, in part, for lack of community support.
Around the same time there was an attempt to turn part of Avalon Airport into a major film and television studio. It attracted the attention of at least one major US film company before falling apart when the State Government showed no interest.
More recently, there was a push to build a permanent base for the Australian Formula One Grand Prix at Avalon Airport.
Once again a lack of government support proved to be its downfall.
Now, however, thanks to the curious combination of job losses and an eccentric mayor with an innate ability to attract the spotlight, governments are listening. And their wallets are open.
Now is the time to bring out the big ideas, to start talking to government and business about investing in Geelong as a tourism destination. We have the amenities and the infrastructure and, most important, we have the people.