OBERON PLATEAU TOURISM ASSOCIATION. Minutes of Meeting held at The O Connell Avenue Café & Store, O Connell August

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1 OBERON PLATEAU TOURISM ASSOCIATION Minutes of Meeting held at The O Connell Avenue Café & Store, O Connell August ATTENDEES: Monica Vince, Wayne Cooper, Barry, Robyn and Michael Richard, Jules Bros, Debra Marks, Alan Cairney, Peter Wright, Irene Bishop, Sally and Bob Parrington, Jennifer Prineas and Malcolm Allen, Pat Bird, James Shearer, Chris Stott, Tim and Fran Charge, APOLOGIES: Lin Boswell, Tony and Deirdre Robinson, Lynne Causer, Brian and Sandy Harman, Tina and John Philp, Charles Degotardi The Chair: Wayne Cooper opened the meeting at 1910hrs/7.10pm MINUTES OF MEETING May 12th 2012: Minutes accepted (Jules Bros /Pat Bird) BUSINESS ARISING FROM MINUTES: Report from previous meeting for Mayfield Garden omitted and now attached to these minutes: Wayne advised the meeting that the committee had approved a half page advertisement on the Oberon Farmers Markets in the recent Oberon Review Country and Regional Living Expo supplement and commented on the excellent work by the review in proceeding with the supplement despite Oberon not attending this year. We understand that the convenors of the Expo provided a stand for the Review and Review staff and other volunteers handed out copies of the paper and spoke to visitors about Oberon. OPTA thanks the Oberon Review staff, convenors Peter and Jenny Bailey and all involved and in particular those businesses and organisations who supported the supplement with advertising. New Members: Nil CORRESPONDENCE IN: Letter from Oberon High School advising of planned sponsorship for scholarships. Letter from Westmead Children s Hospital requesting support, decision deferred until Brian Harman returns. Correspondence Out: Nil TREASURERS REPORT: Circulated prior to meeting (Irene Bishop/Barry Richard) NEW BUISINESS: James Shearer, new CEO of Blue Mountains Lithgow and Oberon Tourism was introduced to the meeting. James spoke about his extensive experience in tourism in New Zealand and Australia and how he is looking forward to working with members to promote Oberon and the region. Anyone can ring or James; details are available from the Secretary. 1

2 Alan Cairney, GM of Oberon Council, spoke about his attendance at and OBA meeting and the MOU with OPTA. Plans are underway to arrange necessary meetings. Alan plans to change the focus of the VIC to include increased sales of appropriate merchandise to visitors, changes to the staff roster and include commentary on stats from the VIC. Wayne spoke about the issues raised by several members in regard to the way B&Bs and Self Contained & Cottages were split into (up to) 18 different buttons by location and distance from Oberon and circulated the paper attached to these minutes. Wayne commented that it was unreasonable to expect visitors to know where various locations were. Wayne proposed that the present system be replaced by an interactive map and three buttons (as described on the paper). The meeting approved the committee proceeding with the proposal subject to review by members. IT Report: Wayne presented a short report, indicating that visitation to the updated website continues to improve on same period last year (up +60%). VIC Report: Debra Marks presented a verbal report. National Parks and Wildlife Service: Jules presented the following report - NPWS attended the Regional BMLOT awards and were fortunate to win the 'Major Attraction' & 'Heritage' awards for Blue Mountains National Park & the heritage walking tracks project. - Cost savings by the Office of Environment & Heritage (OEH) has meant that lead park 2

3 brochures will no longer be produced, instead, a new national park website is being developed to offer update park information online. Kanangra-Boyd NP information will soon be available on the website. Abercrombie River NP & Yerranderie RP information will shortly follow. -Yerranderie Private Town has been funded this year for essential stabilisation work on the Post Office. This work is necessary for the continual use of the building as tourist accommodation. - Update on the volunteer shooting in national parks...the Volunteer Pest Control program is expected to begin in early According to the Head of NPWS..."Prior to commencement, NPWS staff, OHS specialists, union and the Game Council representatives will work towards the implementation of a safe and effective volunteer pest control program." - The RTO funded bike/ vehicle touring maps/ brochure are well underway. A total of 12 cycle routes, (mountain bike, road & touring) will be promoted within the local area. The map will display local attractions and visitor infrastructure. The funding will also allow for MTB routes within Kanangra-Boyd NP to be signposted and the provision of a disabled access toilet at Bummaroo Ford campground. Jenolan Caves: Nil Mayfield Garden: No report. Oberon Arts Council: Fran Charge presented a verbal report. Meeting closed at 2100hrs/9.00pm Next Meeting: September 10th 2012 Venue to be advised at a later date. Signed as a true and correct record of proceedings. Signed Date 3

4 Mayfield Garden report omitted from June minutes Mayfield Garden Autumn 2012 Sorry for delay in providing a report following our Autumn Open weekends. On the whole the weekends went off very well, the weather while not perfect, was consistently better than Autumn This reflected an overall increase in visitor numbers of about 12% on the previous Autumn. While we had quite a few group bookings we are finding that the Spring is more popular for groups with more than a dozen booked in already for Spring. We are building a database of people to be Friends of Mayfield Garden and signed many visitors up over our open weekends. Initially it is free to join and they will receive the newsletter via or post however eventually it will have more tangible benefits so there will be a cost involved. Prior to the open weekends the stone wall leading from the ticket box to the Water garden was completed. Stone facing of the toilet block has commenced recently and will be complete before the Spring open weekends. Work progresses well on the Grotto with possibility of opening for Spring although the landscaping won t be complete by then. We are ramping up work in the retail/café/nursery area with a proposed opening as a destination 7 days a week, after the open weekends next Autumn Discussions are currently underway with The Mitchell Conservatorium of music regarding Mayfield Garden being the venue for a concert by the Macquarie Philharmonic Orchestra this Spring. No date has been set as yet but there is enthusiastic support for the use of a paddock adjacent to the Open Weekend car park to be the venue. We are actively upgrading our profile on face book with regular updates and consequently have enjoyed increased traffic in this area. Jo Murphy 4

5 Oberon Plateau Tourism Association Buttons for Accommodation on oberonaustralia.com Background Several members have requested a review of the process of identification of accommodation businesses by location and distance from Oberon on the website. The current system is base on location and distance from Oberon. This was originally designed to facilitate consumers locating accommodation this way, however it may lead to confusion as it requires a person who is not familiar to the area to know where each village or location is. Current System There are 9 buttons displayed for different accommodation categories and under Bed & Breakfast, Self-Contained & Cabins and Country Experience up to a further 18 buttons by location and distance as follows: Proposed Solution 5

6 A map plus only three buttons shown below. The new interactive map will include all places and features plus more currently shown on the 18 buttons. We will change the 2-hour flag to 2-3 hours as the circle extends to the Sydney CBD. Current wording will remain with changes to reflect driving times rather than distances. The Accommodation Availability button to remain in it s current location. Oberon and Surrounds (within a 30 minute drive) Further afield from Oberon (35 to 60 minutes drive) View All Oberon District Accommodation 6