ON-LAND ECO-TOURISM BOOST

By Rachael Smith

The Whitsunday region could soon have two multi-million dollar on-land eco-tourism developments underway if the new Twin Creeks Eco Park, located at the end of Rifle Range Road in Cannon Valley, is approved by Council. This new development will join the ground-breaking Whitsunday Skyway Project which is seven years away from completion.

Mayor Julie Hall donned her work boots this week to take a four-wheel drive tour of the newly proposed Twin Creeks Eco Park located on the Hidden Valley rural development site in Cannon Valley.

The guided tour showed the Mayor, Council CEO Warren Bunker, Deputy Mayor Gary Simpson and Councillor Clay Bauman the extent of the 1000-acre site, a large proportion of which is set to become a vast on-land tourism offering.

This will include a large caravan park that offers 400 sites which will be a mixture of campers, caravans, safaris tents, eco-cabins, and villas.

There will also be a central restaurant and microbrewery, adventure playground with rope swing course, dozens of bush walking tracks and, most importantly an extensive mountain bike trail.

Developers are hoping that mountain-biking will become a huge all-season tourism drawcard.

“Queenstown in New Zealand actually makes more money from mountain biking than they do skiing,” said Ashley Rees, Director of the Hidden Valley Development.

“Mountain biking is a real driver of demand in the area and with the upcoming 2032 Olympics it would be awesome to think we could be part of that somehow.”

The developers are planning to set-up a network of trails that will offer a range of grades and levels, perfect for training mountain-bikers both prior to and during the Olympics.

Throughout the construction phase, 31 local people will be employed and during the operational phase there will be 128 local jobs per year.

Following Tuesday afternoon’s on-site tour, developers met with Whitsunday Regional Council formally on Wednesday to gauge the interest in amending the existing master plan approvals to accommodate this broader range of tourism and community activities.

If this project goes ahead, Twin Creeks Eco Park will be the second major development of this kind in the area, with development plans for Whitsunday Skyway already progressing.

Whitsunday Regional Council CEO, Warren Bunker, said that although some people may see the two applications as a conflict or competition, he sees them as ‘complementary’, creating a larger overall on-land eco-tourism offering for the Whitsundays.

Whitsunday Skyway will be located 430 metres above Airlie Beach, in the Conway National Park.

A one-kilometre cable car ride will take visitors from town to the summit where there will be a restaurant and large viewing area.

There will also be a series of world-class mountain bike trails and luge cart tracks to descend in style.

Both Skway and Twin Creeks are aiming to offer an immersive cultural experience that will partner with local Indigenous representatives and include educational and adventure activities for school groups.

With a large percentage of Whitsunday tourism focused on coastal or on-water activities, these two developments are set to both diversify and maximise our overall tourism offering.

‍

Jackson Gray, Councillor Clay Bauman, Brett Evans, Mayor Julie Hall, Corey Brown, Ashley Rees, Whitsunday Regional Council CEO Warren Bunker and Deputy Mayor Gary Simpson at the site of the proposed Twin Creeks Eco Park. Photo credit: Rachael Smith

Mayor Julie Hall receives an on-site briefing from the team at Twin Peaks Eco Park. Photo credit: Rachael Smith

‍