If you’ve ever watched Game
of Thrones you’ll know how isolating it can feel to be called “Walls End”,
especially when winter comes.
One great spin-off of the local Wallsend Winter Fair is that
it drags some of those who think that Newcastle ends at Hamilton out to the
city’s “frontier” – where they’re often pleasantly surprised with what they see
and experience.
But how much easier that discovery could be with just a little
more creativity, integration and marketing.
I’ve always felt that Newcastle as a whole has never sufficiently
capitalised on its tourism potential in the way that other less well-endowed
cities have managed to do.
Look, for example, at how much more successfully Fremantle,
Western Australia’s port city (now pretty much a suburb of Perth) has managed
to pitch its heritage and history to tourists, despite Newcastle’s clearly superior
collection of heritage and natural assets.
In saying this, I’m not just talking about the Newcastle CBD
– Wallsend and its near neighbours suffer the same malaise.
The area is a treasure trove of built and natural heritage
and other attractions, just waiting for a strategy and the requisite leadership
and resources to package them for a receptive tourism market, from young
backpackers to grey nomads.
Modern tourists crave experiences that are rich in cultural
narrative, and the area offers these aplenty.
For a quick sample, check out the historical photos all around
the Wallsend business district, and if that whets your appetite, try the
Historic Wallsend Town Centre Walk, which will take you to twelve local
heritage sites all within easy casual walking distance of the main shopping
strip.
If a bit of nature and adventure is more your thing, there’s
the Hexham wetlands and its amazing history from ancient Aboriginal occupation
through to today’s massive wetland rehabilitation project, and encompassing the
stories of Smithy’s Airport, the Ironbark Creek Floodgates, the Hunter Wetlands
Centre and the exciting Richmond Vale Rail Trail project.
A little further north, there’s the still little-known treasure
of the Blue Gum Hills Regional Park, with its own heritage walk through abandoned
mining sites, its picnic areas and its Tree Top Adventure Park, where kids and
parents can walk and swing their way through the trees.
South from Wallsend, you can ride the Wallsend - Glendale cycleway,
which follows an old tramway route toward Lake Macquarie. It may not yet be as
well-known or used as the Fernleigh Track, but it’s destined for similar popularity.
For a more sedate experience, you could stroll around the
beautiful Wallsend Park, or catch a movie at the Regal, Newcastle’s most unique
cinema, just up the road in Birmingham Gardens.
The problem is that unless you know that all these treasures
are there, it’s hard to find out about them, because no one has pulled it all
together and marketed it as a package of potential experiences for tourists or
locals.
I hasten to add that this isn’t for want of trying by the
local business and residential community. Wallsend has always been fortunate to
have one of Newcastle’s most dynamic and creative business groups (the Wallsend
Town Business Association), and an active and dedicated heritage group.
They do what they can, but the task of bringing all this
together and presenting it as integrated set of experiences is beyond the
modest resources of such organisations.
It’s really a matter for a council with a sense of vision
and a commitment to facilitating forms of economic development that don’t rely
on big business and big buildings.
Properly packaged and promoted, it could provide valuable
jobs for local workers and a significant boost to the income of local
businesses, especially in conjunction with local festive events, such as the
Wallsend Winter Fair.
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