A word from the Chairman – November 2, 2017

In the past week, the Great Ocean Road has been the big winner at the Australian Traveller People’s Choice Awards being named as the country’s best road trip in Australia. Victoria led the way at the awards with Melbourne named Australia’s favorite city by travellers for the sixth straight year. Australia’s sporting and cultural capital was judged best city travel experience, while Chin Chin (owned by one of our part-time residents) was judged best restaurant at the awards.

The awards confirmed what many of us already know, and believe in, while research shows that interstate visitor numbers and spending continued to increase to June 30. Victorian Tourism Minister John Eren said the pressure was on to remain a tourism leader as other states tried to tap into the lucrative tourism sector. “Because of the value of the visitor economy, every state and territory understands the importance of it and it’s a competitive market,” Mr Eren said.

He said the sector was now worth about $23 billion to the state economy and generated about 215,000 jobs but the aim was to lift that to $36.5 billion and 320,000 jobs by 2025. All great news with a state election on the horizon and the Point Grey precinct in the final stages of preparation prior to lobbying for funding for the project in the heart of Australia’s most popular road trip!

More great news being shared by Chris Pike, Surf Coast Shire manager of culture and community, who informed us that following the Stribling Reserve Masterplan process winning the state award in the Community Services/Development category, the project has featured strongly in the national awards. The Project finished in the top three projects in the prestigious national awards where the Australian Institute of Project Management awards recognise project management excellence, narrowly losing out to a Queensland project delivered by a global engineering and advisory services firm in the same category.

A huge weekend coming up in Lorne to celebrate the Melbourne Cup holiday weekend with a number of events scheduled. The Lorne Country Club’s Open tournament kicks off today and they also have their Gold Record Show on Saturday evening (limited tickets still available. The presentation of the Doug and Mary Stirling Community Cup on Friday evening at the Cumberland and the Lions Club Market Saturday on the Lorne Foreshore just to name a few

Notice is hereby given of the Committee for Lorne’s Community Lunch at the View at the Lorne Hotel on December 1 (RSVP to Nicole@greatoceanroadrealestate. com.au) and our annual general meeting is scheduled for December 14 at 5pm at the Multi-Purpose Room at the Stribling Reserve.

Ian Stewart
Chairman – Committee for Lorne