Greater Shepparton Council, Mitchell Council and Strathbogie Council come together to deliver tourism project

A new project aims to bring visitors back to the state’s northeast after the devastating floods last year. But there’s already plenty of amazing places to visit. Check out our list.

Greater Shepparton City Council, Mitchell Shire Council and Strathbogie Shire Council have teamed up to recover the valley‘s tourism economy after the flooding events. Picture: Supplied

Three Victorian councils are teaming up to deliver a $300,000 tourism project to draw more tourists back to the flood-impacted region.

The state government has supported the Greater Shepparton City, Mitchell Shire and Strathbogie Shire Councils to come together as one to deliver the Goulburn Region Tourism Partnership project.

Although the exact details of the project are unclear, the “collaborative project is aimed at strengthening and growing the visitor economy offering of the region”.

The partnership will provide a collaborative approach and strategic framework to the region’s visitor economy through the completion of a series of projects.

This will include engaging community in the creation of a regional destination management plan, as well as the delivery of an industry skills building program.

The Goulburn Valley welcomes more than two million visitors annually and offers many “fantastic attractions” and events for visitors to enjoy, according to the councils.

The project comes after each municipality was badly affected by the floods last year, and this is a way each council can work together to rebuild what their region was best known for.

Greater Shepparton City Council Mayor Shane Sali said Shepparton and the Goulburn Valley had so much to offer.

Shepparton was hit with devastating flooding last October. Picture: David Crosling

“Our region’s major events program and expanding visitor attractions have supported our ongoing growth as a leading regional destination,” Mr Sali said.

“While the recent flood event impacted our tourism sector, our community’s strength and resilience has helped the industry in its recovery and continued growth.

“This is an exciting collaborative project, and we look forward to the further support it will deliver to our region and that of our partner councils.”

Cr Sali said it was all about a strong working collaboration between neighbouring municipalities.

“We’ve always known through a visitor economy perspective is we have a strong connection and there’s a massive overlap of people who visit the region and we want to work together to be able to capture that, support each other and recover as best as we possibly can from the flood event that took place last year and further promote this part of the world,” he said.

“The municipalities that have a very strong visitor economy are the Mitchell Shire and Strathbogie — coming together from this aspect to really drive and build our visitor economy is so important,” he said.

The program is currently funded for 12 months and the council’s goals are to showcase how they can work together and hopefully make this an “ongoing form” of collaboration, which has not been done in the past to this level.

Stage one is known as the informing stage, and Cr Sali said he and the other councils have to bring in stakeholders and the community of the partnerships and arrangements together to proceed.

“Once we bring key stakeholders together and talk about how we can further enhance our region — it’s basically exposing it publicly around the benefits of this collaboration,” Mr Sali said.

“I think personally what I’m really excited to see is when we bring these stakeholders together it’s bringing them in from the three regions — and although we’re very similar and have a lot of differences as well and I think that not only you can further enhance your region you can actually build a strength within industries that come from that region.

“People will share different examples of what makes them successful and we can share those with our own people here in our own region — it’s basically tapping into existing knowledge and being able to showcase that and build our region collectively rather than individually.”

Mr Sali said he’s looking forward to build on from where they were.

“Obviously we had significant flooding that impacted all three areas and I think it’s about that we know people want to come to the region — not only to live, but also to visit as well,” he said.

“We would make sure with the overlap of visitation we have that visitors are stopping and experiencing different parts of regional Victoria rather than just driving to one destination doing what they do there and then go home.

“Whether you’re coming up from the city for the day or the weekend that you can have some really great experiences on the way through Mitchell, Strathbogie and Greater Shepparton or visa versa as well — we’ve got a year to work through it.”

“The Goulburn Region begins only an hour from Melbourne and offers some exceptional attractions and events for visitors to enjoy as day trippers as well as for those who want to explore and experience more with longer stays,” Mitchell Shire Council mayor Fiona Stevens said.

“The partnership will allow our region to lead the strategic direction of tourism within the Goulburn region and will supply us the recognition and support we need to highlight and share our exceptional offerings.

“We look forward to working with industry, partner Councils and State Government on this key project for our region”.

“The partnership and participating councils will involve industry groups and community throughout this project as we investigate the best outcomes for the future of regional tourism,” Strathbogie Shire Council mayor Laura Binks said.

“Strathbogie Shire has so much to offer when it comes to tourism – to see, do, experience and taste.

“Council looks forward to being a part of this collaborative project and we are eager to see the outcomes of this work.”