Walt Disney was a dreamer who made a fortune. Braxton Lane thinks he has some lessons for us in Bass Coast.
By Braxton Lane
PHILLIP Island is at work on a 20-year tourism strategy, but why should they have all the fun? I have a vision for the future of tourism in within the Bass Coast area and it involves the town of Wonthaggi. It is mine and it may not be yours, or the right one, but you have to start somewhere.
Wonthaggi’s CBD is struggling; each year more of our shops seem to become vacant. Everyone understands where the town is now but in my opinion we have not asked about a long-term plan. I thought I would put a vision out there to start the conversation.
Thirty years ago I visited Disneyland and it changed my life. Walt Disney had a vision of a place where children and parents could have fun together. The more Walt dreamed of a "magical park", the more imaginative and elaborate it became. Disneyland was expensive. Walt once said, "I could never convince the financiers that Disneyland was feasible, because dreams offer too little collateral".
The original plans for the park were on eight acres next to the Burbank studios where his employees and families could go to relax. The Second World War put those plans on hold. During the war, Walt had time to come up with new ideas and creations for his magical park.
It was soon clear that eight acres wouldn't be enough. He needed space to build rivers, waterfalls, and mountains; he would have flying elephants and giant teacups; a fairy-tale castle, moon rockets, and a scenic railway, all inside a magic kingdom he called "Disneyland".
On July 21, 1954, construction began on a 160-acre orange grove in rural California and the first Disneyland opened in 1955.
Where would we find the equivalent site in Victoria?
Wonthaggi, a town that is large enough to cope with the tourist numbers, a town with a desalination plant that could meet the water requirements. You would locate this new infrastructure next to the desalination plant where it would have little impact on the community, much the same as Disneyland.
Wonthaggi was born in 1909 as the state coal mine came to life and today the townspeople have a strength and bond that echoes the values of those old miners to look after each other and to help and assist where possible. We have the foundation of a great team.
If we were to hand our visitors a feedback survey and asked them whether they regarded the town as “just another stop” or a good place to visit, most would say a good place, and that’s because of the people.
Most visitors come down this way for the outdoor activities (the beach) but in winter it looks like a ghost town as people migrate to warmer venues.
My vision for Wonthaggi is simple: a great experience for the family and a name that is known world-wide in the tourism industry as the number 1 place to take your family 365 days a year.
We capitalise on this new infrastructure with a new shopping centre that keeps us in town and brings people from the surrounding regional areas to us. Pretty soon, investors would flock to our town to build the accommodation for all the extra people.
Phillip Island’s 2035 tourism strategy highlights that over two million people will holiday on Phillip Island by 2025. Clearly, this number is not sustainable. The main road system can’t cope, nor can the infrastructure. The design of Cowes funnels people into a dead end. Traffic movement is already difficult. With those numbers, it will come to a standstill.
The approach to Phillip Island is already at capacity.
Double-laning the highway to San Remo, building a new bridge, adding extra lanes to Cowes and finally redeveloping Cowes to accommodate all those tourists would be prohibitively expensive. I don’t believe the majority of residents want such development to occur. Far simpler and cheaper to double lane Bass Highway from Anderson Hill to Wonthaggi.
My vision could see Wonthaggi attract two to three million people annually, with flow-on benefits to Phillip Island and other tourist destinations around the area.
Making Wonthaggi the central hub would benefit all towns. We would create jobs and Victoria would get a larger slice of the pie with international visitors.
It’s a big vision with endless possibilities but we are a big town and we can do it. You know why? Because it has been done before. Such facilities exist right now around the world and I have put links to them all on Facebook.
This is my vision, my dream. Thank you for taking the time to go through it.
COMMENTS
February 15, 2016
Full marks for such huge visionary ideas. When you look at all those people living on the eastern side of Melb in addition to existing tourist potential , the limited exposure to coastal areas makes Bass Coast an enitivability to become a focus of their attention.
However there are numerous examples of” failed visions” or” inappropriate development” that has occurred to date in the Bass Coast area , so you would need a targeted plan.
Your idea needs to be “sold “ to an experienced , substantial, very likely international entrepreneur of such projects.
It is a very good idea and would be fantastic for the area in so many ways, I hope I live to see it happen. Good luck
Roger Davis
I have a sneaky feeling that Braxton Lane is taking the mickey out of us. I most certainly hope so, but just in case. Flying elephants and fairy floss a la Disneyland in Wonthaggi sounds like the nightmare to end all nightmares.
What was that line Joni Mitchell wrote in her song Big Yellow Taxi about "You don't know what you've got till it's gone, see paradise and put up a parking lot."
Come on Braxton, give us a break.
Bob Middleton, Jeetho West
February 13, 2016
Good on you Braxton for being brave enough to share your dream and now I hope you have the courage to pursue it.
I think it’s a wonderful and exciting dream and I wish you all the best in achieving it, or at least getting others on board and commencing the journey with you.
Good luck.
Lou Pecora, Phillip Island
Love a good vision and a dream. It all starts with with one idea.
Neri Melsmith, Cape Woolamai
PHILLIP Island is at work on a 20-year tourism strategy, but why should they have all the fun? I have a vision for the future of tourism in within the Bass Coast area and it involves the town of Wonthaggi. It is mine and it may not be yours, or the right one, but you have to start somewhere.
Wonthaggi’s CBD is struggling; each year more of our shops seem to become vacant. Everyone understands where the town is now but in my opinion we have not asked about a long-term plan. I thought I would put a vision out there to start the conversation.
Thirty years ago I visited Disneyland and it changed my life. Walt Disney had a vision of a place where children and parents could have fun together. The more Walt dreamed of a "magical park", the more imaginative and elaborate it became. Disneyland was expensive. Walt once said, "I could never convince the financiers that Disneyland was feasible, because dreams offer too little collateral".
The original plans for the park were on eight acres next to the Burbank studios where his employees and families could go to relax. The Second World War put those plans on hold. During the war, Walt had time to come up with new ideas and creations for his magical park.
It was soon clear that eight acres wouldn't be enough. He needed space to build rivers, waterfalls, and mountains; he would have flying elephants and giant teacups; a fairy-tale castle, moon rockets, and a scenic railway, all inside a magic kingdom he called "Disneyland".
On July 21, 1954, construction began on a 160-acre orange grove in rural California and the first Disneyland opened in 1955.
Where would we find the equivalent site in Victoria?
Wonthaggi, a town that is large enough to cope with the tourist numbers, a town with a desalination plant that could meet the water requirements. You would locate this new infrastructure next to the desalination plant where it would have little impact on the community, much the same as Disneyland.
Wonthaggi was born in 1909 as the state coal mine came to life and today the townspeople have a strength and bond that echoes the values of those old miners to look after each other and to help and assist where possible. We have the foundation of a great team.
If we were to hand our visitors a feedback survey and asked them whether they regarded the town as “just another stop” or a good place to visit, most would say a good place, and that’s because of the people.
Most visitors come down this way for the outdoor activities (the beach) but in winter it looks like a ghost town as people migrate to warmer venues.
My vision for Wonthaggi is simple: a great experience for the family and a name that is known world-wide in the tourism industry as the number 1 place to take your family 365 days a year.
- An indoor, climate-controlled water theme park. Putting the beach inside extends our holiday period throughout the winter months. If you have a desalination plant bringing in salt water from the ocean, it only seems fair to build a new Sea World. Gold Coast’s Sea World attracts 1.3 million visitors and has been voted Australia’s top tourist attraction of all time.
- An indoor, climate-controlled ski field. producing about 30 tonnes of snow each day with the inside temperature in Ski Wonny to be kept at minus 1°C. Our winter will be 365 days a year. Each winter some 761,962 people travel several hours to the mountains to ski. We are two hours out of Melbourne. Ski Dubai attracts more than 750,000 visitors a year. Climate change will build our business and they will come.
- A wave pool with the perfect wave.
- A world-class marine aquarium.
We capitalise on this new infrastructure with a new shopping centre that keeps us in town and brings people from the surrounding regional areas to us. Pretty soon, investors would flock to our town to build the accommodation for all the extra people.
Phillip Island’s 2035 tourism strategy highlights that over two million people will holiday on Phillip Island by 2025. Clearly, this number is not sustainable. The main road system can’t cope, nor can the infrastructure. The design of Cowes funnels people into a dead end. Traffic movement is already difficult. With those numbers, it will come to a standstill.
The approach to Phillip Island is already at capacity.
Double-laning the highway to San Remo, building a new bridge, adding extra lanes to Cowes and finally redeveloping Cowes to accommodate all those tourists would be prohibitively expensive. I don’t believe the majority of residents want such development to occur. Far simpler and cheaper to double lane Bass Highway from Anderson Hill to Wonthaggi.
My vision could see Wonthaggi attract two to three million people annually, with flow-on benefits to Phillip Island and other tourist destinations around the area.
Making Wonthaggi the central hub would benefit all towns. We would create jobs and Victoria would get a larger slice of the pie with international visitors.
It’s a big vision with endless possibilities but we are a big town and we can do it. You know why? Because it has been done before. Such facilities exist right now around the world and I have put links to them all on Facebook.
This is my vision, my dream. Thank you for taking the time to go through it.
COMMENTS
February 15, 2016
Full marks for such huge visionary ideas. When you look at all those people living on the eastern side of Melb in addition to existing tourist potential , the limited exposure to coastal areas makes Bass Coast an enitivability to become a focus of their attention.
However there are numerous examples of” failed visions” or” inappropriate development” that has occurred to date in the Bass Coast area , so you would need a targeted plan.
Your idea needs to be “sold “ to an experienced , substantial, very likely international entrepreneur of such projects.
It is a very good idea and would be fantastic for the area in so many ways, I hope I live to see it happen. Good luck
Roger Davis
I have a sneaky feeling that Braxton Lane is taking the mickey out of us. I most certainly hope so, but just in case. Flying elephants and fairy floss a la Disneyland in Wonthaggi sounds like the nightmare to end all nightmares.
What was that line Joni Mitchell wrote in her song Big Yellow Taxi about "You don't know what you've got till it's gone, see paradise and put up a parking lot."
Come on Braxton, give us a break.
Bob Middleton, Jeetho West
February 13, 2016
Good on you Braxton for being brave enough to share your dream and now I hope you have the courage to pursue it.
I think it’s a wonderful and exciting dream and I wish you all the best in achieving it, or at least getting others on board and commencing the journey with you.
Good luck.
Lou Pecora, Phillip Island
Love a good vision and a dream. It all starts with with one idea.
Neri Melsmith, Cape Woolamai