The preservation of a historic stationmaster’s house has led to a morale boosting tourism initiative in the Shire of Lake Grace, in Western Australia’s southern region.
In late 2000, the stationmaster’s house was earmarked for demolition so WA Railways could sell the property.
Residents formed a community group and asked Council to help save the building and convert it to an interactive tourist centre. Through the Lake Grace Development Association, the community group received $30,000 from the Commonwealth Regional Assistance Project, which enabled it to save the building. The group also obtained $20,000 in corporate sponsorship to restore the house and turn it into a visitor’s information centre.
Council’s Executive Assistant, Jeanette Bennett, said gaining the funding raised the community’s spirit. “At the time, we were in the middle of a drought,” she said. “The grant gave us a much needed morale booster at a time of extreme financial hardship.”
Jeanette Bennett said the grant paid for an economic impact study of the stationmaster’s house, a major tourism and marketing strategy for the Shire, and landscape planning for the town of Lake Grace. It also enabled the community group to start several other projects, including a sculpture called ‘On the Sheep’s Back’. This will involve the installation of 60 life sized sheep sculptures in the main street of Lake Grace. The first sheep has been sculpted and a mould had been cast for mass production. The community committee has obtained $25,000 in community arts funding and developed a corporate sponsorship package to complete the project.
The Shire has also received funding for the Lake Grace Inland Mission Hospital, which was established in 1926 by Royal Flying Doctor Service pioneer, John Flynn. One of two remaining Australian Inland Mission Hospitals, it was restored by the local community and turned into a museum. The Shire received corporate funding for a brochure outlining the history of the building and an interpretive pathway linking Apex Park with the hospital.
Jeanette Bennett said all these successful tourism projects had given the Shire and the community committee impetus to design a new tourism brochure. It promotes the historic Holland Track, which linked Lake Grace to the West Australian goldfields in 1893.
John Holland and his partners travelled nearly 530 kilometres in 65 days, often through dense scrub, to cut the track. It was used by hundreds of prospectors and their families who travelled overland in their quest to find fortune on the Golden Mile. Today, John Holland Way is a sealed 800 kilometre tourist drive linking Coolgardie with Albany via Wave Rock and Broomehill.
For further information contact Jeanette Bennett, email jeanettebennett@lakegrace.wa.gov.au or telephone (08) 9865 1105.
