Jobs Vanish As Blackened Grampians Licks Its Wounds

The Age

Tuesday February 21, 2006

ORIETTA GUERRERA, RURAL REPORTER

MORE than 100 jobs have been lost as a result of the devastating January bushfires in the Grampians region.

A month after the fires swept across 130,000 hectares, blackening 47 per cent of the Grampians National Park, a survey of tourism businesses has shown the extent of the damage caused to the region's $187 million-a-year tourism industry.

Of the 102 businesses surveyed, 72 per cent have had bookings cancelled because of the fires, with almost a third of cancellations made with only one or two weeks' notice.

Almost half the businesses have or will have to lay off staff, resulting in 112 job losses, and almost all have lost revenue.

The survey, by industry body Tourism Alliance, will help the Grampians Region Tourism Recovery Group - made up of local governments and businesses - plan a recovery.

Angelique Lush, acting chairwoman of the recovery group, said yesterday it was too early to gauge the revenue loss, but it would be "significant".

"A few weeks out of the fires, businesses are still in that period of trying to evaluate what their position is," Ms Lush said.

Popular sites in the national park are reopening daily. The Mount William lookout is open, with Parks Victoria hoping to have the other two major lookouts, Boroka and Reeds, open next week.

Large areas around Victoria Valley and Wonderland remain closed.

Parks Victoria's Grampians National Park team leader, Prue Daley, said yesterday visitors were beginning to return to the park, keen to see the fire-affected areas and the regeneration of the bush. "Every area has to be assessed for risk and safety," she said. "What we're opening at the moment is the main tourist thoroughfares."

Businesses surveyed called for more regional marketing and short-term financial assistance.

The Government's Ministerial Bushfire Taskforce is providing low-interest loans for small businesses that have suffered loss or damage and a taskforce report on the fires will be released next month.

Victorian Nationals leader Peter Ryan yesterday hit out at the State Government for failing to act on a drop in visitor numbers to regional areas over recent years.

Tourism Victoria statistics for the September 2005 quarter show the number of domestic and interstate overnight visitors has dropped in almost all regions in the past year, by as much as 40 per cent.

Gippsland, the Murray, the Mornington Peninsula and the Goldfields regions have reported some of the largest declines.

Sofia Dedes, a spokeswoman for Tourism Minister John Pandazopoulos, said that in the past financial year, more than half of all event funding through Tourism Victoria's Events Program was allocated to regional Victoria.

© 2006 The Age

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