Tourism windfall
VISITORS will soon be able to view Victoria’s highest single span waterfall from a new vantage point.
A cantilevered viewing platform, first proposed around three years ago, will be built at the Agnes Falls Scenic Reserve north of Toora after South Gippsland Shire Council voted to shift funds in its budget at last Wednesday’s meeting.
At the council meeting, all nine councillors voted to reallocate $170,000 from the stagnant Toora dredging project to build the viewing platform, following a motion put forward by mayor Cr Ray Argento.
The total funding now available for the project is $520,000.
Agnes Falls was the shire’s most visited tourist attraction in 2016-17, beating Coal Creek Community Park and Museum in Korumburra by nearly 3000 visitations.
Cr Argento said the Toora dredging project had been on the books for many years, without attracting enough funding to complete.
He said reallocating the funds to the Agnes Falls project would benefit the whole shire.
“It is one of the greatest natural assets in our shire,” he said.
Cr Jeremy Rich said council’s decision to invest in the cantilevered viewing platform project would increase visitation to the region.
“It was a well considered project and good use of funds that weren’t going to be used,” he said.
Deputy mayor Cr Maxine Kiel said the cantilevered viewing platform would “bring the shire into the 21st century”.
Friends of Agnes Falls vice president Peter Lee and secretary Kathy Whelan were at the meeting, to see the result of the motion first hand.
“We were most gratified to hear Cr Argento explain to his fellow councillors how the funding could come about and the justification for this great improvement at Agnes Falls,” Ms Whelan said.
Ms Whelan said she and Mr Lee were “blown away” by the unanimous decision to pass the motion.
“We are most grateful to Cr Argento for finding a way to fund the construction and are thrilled the councillors shared our vision of bringing the Agnes Falls up to a higher standard worthy of even more local, interstate and international visitation,” she said.
Breakthrough: Friends of Agnes Falls vice president Peter Lee and secretary Kathy Whelan were delighted with South Gippsland Shire Council’s decision to fund a cantilevered viewing platform at Agnes Falls, north of Toora.
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Posted by Tayla Kershaw on Oct 3 2017. Filed under Featured, News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry
