Last week’s Council Meeting included eight Officer reports and one urgent business item for endorsement. The majority were procedural relating to policy reviews, Governance Rules review and the Annual Action Plan for 2023-24.
A highlight was the endorsement of the Maryborough Town Hall Electrical & AV upgrade contract which following an extensive tender and evaluation process was awarded to EPM&C Pty Ltd for the sum of $539,639.
The works will commence by the end of the year and once complete, the works will mean that the Town Hall can re-open to community use.
Our vision is that the Town Hall becomes a multi-functional entertainment nerve-centre for our community and future generations to enjoy and to further enhance tourism in Central Goldfields Shire.
We will continue to seek further funding opportunities to restore the Town Hall to its former glory to bring back stage performances, exhibitions, debutante balls, fashion shows, dance and more.
Speaking of tourism, we are seeing a fantastic response from a growing number of visitors to key Central Goldfields attractions including the Art Gallery and Maryborough Station, which are now regional drawcards.
We also have Energy Breakthrough coming up soon which is always a huge event for our Shire and, there is a strong appetite in Central Goldfields to further build on investment in these and other attractions led by our local operators.
I’m heartened by many other ideas I’m hearing such as enhanced signage in key locations and opportunities to build industry connections through professional bodies such as with a tourism accord.
In late November, we’ll host a workshop with Bendigo Regional Tourism to bring together tourism and hospitality operators to share ideas and work together to define priorities for tourism in the Shire.
