A shock announcement by the tourism group to shut the doors of its prominently-placed building, alongside the Murray River where visitors cross the “old bridge’’ from Echuca to Moama, was met with immense dissatisfaction from the community.
Initial concerns for the future of the Rochester centre appear to have been misplaced as it has been confirmed its status as an information centre will not change.
A Riverine Herald report last week quoting Victorian Tourism Industry Council chief executive officer Felicia Mariani said the national body was seeking to understand the implications for the Rochester visitor centre and if the Echuca site closure affected its accreditation.
Ms Mariani described the relationship between the pair as a “parent relationship’’ as Echuca offered support to the Rochester volunteers.
“If there is no longer an accredited Echuca centre, we don’t know what impact that’s going to have on our ability to accredit the Rochester centre,” Ms Mariani said.
But long-time sports museum and information centre volunteer Bob Knight said last week he had been contacted by recently-appointed Campaspe Shire tourism development manager Cheryl Hammer, who told him she would be offering ongoing support to the group.
“We are meeting this week to talk about how they can help,” he said.
Mr Knight said he was aware of the chorus of disappointment from tourism operators and other key stakeholders about the closure of the Echuca centre.
“No-one is happy about it and I know they can’t believe this has happened,” he said.
“Most people I have spoken to believe the town will suffer without the tourism centre, but it won’t affect the operation of the Rochester centre.”
Mr Knight said, as he understood it, Ms Hammer would be the new go-to person for the Rochester group in regards to obtaining the necessary material to promote the region’s tourist attractions.
“She agrees that the closure at Echuca won’t affect us. Our main contact was to re-stock our pamphlets,“ he said.
The Echuca centre at Aquatic Reserve will close its face-to-face services on Thursday, August 31.
The decision was made after Campaspe Shire and Murray River councils elected to withdraw their joint funding of the centre and ambassadors were informed of the closure by EMT chief executive officer Mellisa Gillies two weeks ago.
Rochester’s information centre is operated by the same Lions club volunteers who supply assistance to visitors at the sports museum and has no affiliation to the Echuca site, although it had relied on the centre to stock its shelves with information pamphlets.
The reason behind the closure at Echuca was a significant downturn in revenue.
Ms Gillies said this had forced the group to undertake an urgent review of its organisational structure, operations, costs and staff requirements.
“Both local governments will cease funding to visitor services, effective August 31, 2023,” she said in her letter to ambassadors.
“This means that the visitor information centre will close on August 31, 2023.”
Ms Mariani said the Echuca centre welcomed 55,000 to 60,000 people each year and its closure would have a major impact on local businesses.
She said a major ramification of the decision would be the town’s ineligibility to take part in the Top Tourism Town Awards.
Towns cannot be part of the Top Tourism Town Awards unless they are nominated through a visitor centre.
Rochester will not suffer that fate as its information centre remains open and it will remain eligible for the awards program.
Mr Knight said the Rochester site may see six or seven people a day in regards to tourist information and use of the toilets.
“We have a policy that if people don’t come in to the museum, they can’t use the toilets,” he said.
“Quite often we will have a group of 40 or 50 people coming through who pick up some pamphlets and explain they plan to return and visit some of the attractions of the region.”
Mr Knight said the Echuca centre had been really good to the Lions volunteers in the past couple of years.
“The people at Echuca Moama Tourism would regularly send people to the sports museum and provide us with anything we needed for the visitor information centre,” he said.
The Rochester site has about 15 volunteers that rotate through the museum and information centre, down from pre-COVID numbers of 40
Mr Knight said there had been no talk about Rochester losing its information centre status.
“As far as I know, nothing will change too much for us,” he said.
