A KOALA Sculpture Park proposal has not been supported by Port Macquarie-Hastings Council for potential government bushfire tourism recovery funding.
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At its May 6 meeting, mayor Peta Pinson proposed off the back of the global attention the region attracted over koala rescue and rehabilitation post-bushfires, the Hello Koalas sculpture park plan would be the perfect fit for the funding from a long-term tourism benefit perspective.
Instead, councillors opted to focus the funding submission on one project only to increase the chances of success. That project is Lumiere - an artistic light installation that would illuminate the historic courthouse in Port Macquarie.
The Regional Tourism Bushfire Recovery Grants program is providing $10 million to support events, concerts, festivals and visitor attractions in fire-affected regions. The aim of the program is to help with recovery efforts and encourage international and domestic visitors to come back to the regions.
The program has two funding streams. Stream 1 supports smaller-scale events and stream 2 supports larger events and/or other visitor attractions such as art installations and tourist walks.
The grants are available for eligible local government organisations and regional tourism organisations in bushfire affected areas.
Lumiere is a council-led bicentenary project which aims to project images on to the historic courthouse. It has a total cost of $190,000.
The Koala Sculpture Park, incorporating 16 koala sculptures, is a vision of Hello Koalas at $476,000. This also includes a big koala project in Port Macquarie.
A second big koala, the third component of the Hello Koalas project, is envisaged for the Cowarra tourism precinct where the koala hospital will also establish a wild koala breeding program.
The intended site for the big koala and sculpture park has not yet been confirmed, Hellos Koalas spokesperson Margret Meagher said.
Hello Koalas had also put forward a suggestion to council on May 4 that they revise the submission to only focus on a big koala for Port Macquarie at a cost of $169,000.
"Both projects are fantastic projects and will bring excitement and tourism to our region," Cr Pinson said.
"Given it is regional tourism bushfire grant funding and what our region has been through with these terrible fires ... it has certainly branded our area as true koala country.
"Lumiere is an exciting light show. There is funding available for more than one project, why would we not include more than one project?"
Cr Lee Dixon agreed saying there was a huge amount of international tourism leverage in the koala project.
Cr Rob Turner disagreed. He said while acknowledging the koala sculptures would be an extraordinary piece of cultural art, "more of something that's a really good thing, is not necessarily a good thing".
"It's good to diversify our offer but we could get a grant for the koala sculpture and not Lumiere which would be a travesty," Cr Turner said.
"I'm sure there's enough koala sculptures about already to create a koala sculpture park.
"I think we are better off putting up just one project we would like to achieve."
Member for Port Macquarie, Leslie Williams said it is disappointing councillors did not support the inclusion of the Hello Koalas Sculpture Park proposal.
"The project is strongly supported by the local Tourism Association, the Chamber of Commerce, NSW Business and the Koala Hospital to name just a few," Mrs Williams said.
"It defies belief that you wouldn't submit a project for full federal government funding that meets every one of the eligibility guidelines and that will unquestionably attract local, domestic and international visitors at a time when the tourism and business sector in our region are so desperate for an economic uplift.
"The Hello Koalas Sculpture Trail attracted almost one million visitors to the Royal Botanic Garden in Sydney over a two month period last year so why wouldn't we want those visitors in Port Macquarie?
"The questions from councillors at the meeting indicated clearly that they were not across the details of the proposal and that they had no understanding of how competitive merit based funding works."
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