IT’S fascinating to look back to major tourist attractions that were launched with much hoopla to see how they fared in subsequent years.
The Big Woolbales, once along Hamilton’s Coleraine Road. is an interesting example.
This project was expected to redirect tourist buses to include the city and surrounds.
The Bales flourished briefly, then steadily declined in popularity to finally be demolished two years ago.
Hamilton and a lot of other cities of this size have long suffered from having a number of tourist attractions that, placed together, could have been permanently “manned” to improve visitor appeal.
Years ago there was a group of forward thinking locals who pushed the former city council to buy the Old Monivae Homestead and surround the available acres with what’s now the Ansett Museum, the Pastoral Museum, and more.
The site then could have provided a wide pioneer experience – farm life in times past - including blade shearing and so forth.
Sadly, the city fathers of the time couldn’t see a need beyond the art gallery.
A DREAM come true was the way Yooralla Society of Victoria executive director, John Leggoe, described Hamilton’s Big Woolbales at the official opening in August 1989.
Hamilton promotions officer, Kevin Thomas, officiated at the ceremony.
Official party members were: patron of Yooralla and wife of former prime minister, Malcolm Fraser, Mrs Tamie Fraser; mayor Cr Kevin Barber and his wife, Fran; deputy president of Yooralla, Harold Jury and general manager of the Victorian Tourism Commission, Jan Cochrane.
Ms Cochrane unveiled a commemorative plaque which was to be mounted on a wall of the Bales.
The Big Woolbales, was a joint tourist venture between the Yooralla Society of Victoria, Hamilton City Council, Victorian Tourism Commission - and was an Australian first, combining the promotion of tourism with the creation of job opportunities for people with disabilities.
Yooralla’s Hamilton Ability Industries, next door to the new tourist attraction, was to provide staff.
Yooralla’s employment services program aimed to teach people with disabilities a range of skills which could lead to jobs in the everyday workplace, outside supported employment.
In his speech, Mr Leggoe said: “The Big Woolbales is both a comprehensive and attractive presentation of the wool industry, and a focus for the nation-wide drive to create more opportunities in the everyday workforce for people with disabilities.
“This gives Hamilton a major tourist attraction with great potential for further development as a resource centre on the wool industry, which also provides valuable benefits for the disabled people staffing it.
“The experience they gain working in the Bales and dealing with tourists will open up work opportunities elsewhere in tourism and allied industries, making this development a significant one both for individuals and the community in general.”
In addition to the story and romance of the wool industry, complete with shearing demonstrations, handling of fleeces, spinning and weaving, various historical displays, video shows and appropriate souvenirs, the Bales initially promised to offer catering for lunches and dinners for clubs, groups and similar organisations.
FROM the outset the structure, made up of five massive inter-connected wool bales, was part café, factory, museum and souvenir shop.
A display of a variety of fleeces was set up in the wool room along with a video of all aspects of the industry. Charts on the wall detailed each step of the process from the sheep’s back to a finished product.
A platform was built with a shearing plant overhead so that demonstrations of shearing could be shown. A collection of memorabilia from the times of the early settlers was also on display.
Famed Hamilton shearer, Herb Hutchins, demonstrated his trade there on special occasions.
Ditto for Perc Munro and rug making. Others took classes for wool spinning and complementary arts and crafts.
In the canteen area there were souvenirs and a range of woollen products for sale.
An important inclusion was the placing of the North Hamilton Post Office in the shop and cafe area.
Catering already being done in the nearby Peck St factory kitchen was extended in the new business, soon gaining the custom of workers in the neighboring light industrial area.
Food and drinks were also served to visiting tourists.
The Bales nicely complemented Hamilton’s promotional slogan at the time of “Wool Capital of the World”.
These days the shire uses the amorphous tagline of “Greater Hamilton – one place, many possibilities”
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DURING the first few years the Bales attracted about 900 visitors a month.
Like so many other tourist attractions around Australia the place relied increasingly on state and private financial support.
The number of passing tourists withered in later years as government promotion plugged the direct route from Port Fairy to the Grampians, via Penshurst/Dunkeld.
The hoped-for stream of tourist buses wanting to see shearing, wool classing and so forth never eventuated.
After some years the complex was sold to private investors who, despite their best efforts, similarly struggled with the economics.
These operators included Janette Bretherton and Gary Porter, who pulled stumps in 2013,
Later there were Therese and Graham Ash, who used the place as a showroom for machinery and lastly; Glen Campe, who inherited the former icon then with the long-standing structural damage done by white ants that finally sealed its fate.
HAMILTON’S Big Woolbales not living up to expectation isn’t Robinson Crusoe.
Flagstaff Hill Maritime Village, in Warrnambool, is under constant review with losses having grown to $800,000 some years – and that despite that city’s massive tourist influx each summer.
Art galleries around the state now have to spend endless millions to stay abreast with what tourists expect.
Tourist attractions, beyond what nature provides, seemingly have to be constantly reinvented.
