Stanthorpe’s Russell Wantling running for council says the region needs to do more to show itself off to the rest of the state

A key Granite Belt figure who is always keen to show off the region’s exports says all he wants to do is make a difference. Here’s why he wants your vote.

Stanthorpe Apple & Grape Harvest Festival president Russell Wantling (right) with ambassador David McMahon. Picture: Richard Walker.

An icon of promoting the Granite Belt has announced his run for Southern Downs council, and says the council will need to do more to promote the region.

Stanthorpe’s Russell Wantling has rolled up his sleeves in a bid to represent the region at the local government level as the region prepares to head to the polls next week.

The Apple and Grape Harvest Festival president has spent the majority of his life in the region, and was particularly keen on advocating for all residents, from growers and agricultural industries to the tourism industry.

Russell Wantling.

Mr Wantling said the recent success of the Apple and Grape Harvest Festival at Stanthorpe showed how popular the region was, attracting visitors from across the region and state who spent big.

“For example, for events Stanthorpe gets booked out so travellers will stay at Warwick or Wallangarra, it’s a good way to get people to stay in the area, but we’ve got to get better at showing what the Southern Downs has to offer,” Mr Wantling said.

“You know I’m sure people travelling would come through places like Warwick or Killarney and say ‘look at this beautiful place’ and want to return to the region.”

The Apple and Grape president said a new council could figure steer course and find out what the region has to offer and how to direct people to it.

“We need to look at how our economic development looks at tourism, and how we promote it and look at the statistics and figure out how we can improve it, and what are people coming here for,” he said.

Collaboration between various sectors of tourism, agriculture and industry was a major idea Mr Wantling believed would show off the region and present it as a major destination for events and interstate tourism.

Stanthorpe's Russell Wantling is a big supporter of the region's agricultural industry and a key figure around one of the region's biggest events. (Photo: supplied)

“We have so much to offer, and we need to collaborate, maybe we can get some (Granite Belt) wineries to come to the (Warwick) rodeo, or we have wine tours from the rodeo to come to the Granite Belt, we need to compliment more stuff to accommodate more people,” he said.

“We should all be looking at working together, and I would want to work on that and if we had unity in the whole area we’d become a much stronger region.”

Mr Wantling said the biggest issue in the region is that residents feel as if they are not being heard.

“All I’m trying to do is make a difference, people might say the job is just water and rubbish but it’s not, there’s so much more we can do,” he said.

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