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| Media Release | |||
Conference goes regional to Bendigo & the Goldfields
THE Goldfields region will be a focal point for national and international delegates when it features in Ecotourism Australia’s National Conference, to be held in Melbourne and regional Victoria from November 19-23. Mayor of the City of Greater Bendigo, Cr. Julie Rivendell, will welcome delegates to the region at the Golden Dragon Museum where they will hear from the director and founder, Russell Jack. Dinner and cocktails at the Museum will be in the company of the world’s oldest and longest imperial Chinese dragons, Loong and Sun Loong. Since 1991, the Museum has collected and cared for materials of cultural significance to Bendigo’s Chinese community, whose history stretches back more than 150 years to the arrival of the first Chinese miners on the Central Victorian goldfields. The Museum’s diverse collection includes 5000 photographs, goldfield artefacts, Chinese coins, family histories and cultural items. Participants will discover Eureka Reef, part of the Castlemaine Diggings National Heritage Park, with a stroll through the striking contrasts of ancient sandstone seabeds against a bush landscape. Participants will see the extraordinary, multi-layered heritage and ecological values of flora, fauna, geology, 1850s gold rush relics and centuries of Aboriginal occupation all encapsulated in a landscape, which is nearly half a billion years old. Local Aboriginal elder Brian Nelson, geologist Clive Willman, writer Robyn Annear and archeologist David Bannear will share differing perspectives on the landscape. The afternoon includes a visit to the Central Deborah Gold Mine Interpretive Centre, a Talking Tram ride to Bendigo’s Chinese Joss House and a barbecue dinner and indigenous entertainment at Forest Creek Alluvial Gold Diggings. This year’s Ecotourism Australia conference also offers participants the chance to experience day trips to The Grampians National Park (themed “Managing Natural Areas”) in South Western Victoria, and Mt Buller (themed “Tools and Technology”) in the North East. In Melbourne from Wednesday, participants will hear industry leaders debating challenges and proposing solutions to climate change. “As an industry, we are ready to talk about solutions and there is a mindfulness that next year is too long to wait,” says Ecotourism Australia Chairman, Alastair McCracken. “It is encouraging to see a range of operators, not just nature-based, are joining the debate.” Themed, Leading Global Challenges, the conference has attracted top industry speakers including Lonely Planet founder Tony Wheeler, who will consider answering the big questions about the global challenges facing ecotourism. Intrepid Travel CEO, Darrell Wade talks solutions, prompted by his decision to become a Carbon Neutral company by 2010, and operators will come away knowing how to calculate their own Carbon Footprint, as taught by Steven Andrew from Carbon Balance Consulting. MFS Living and Leisure CEO Marshall Vann shares his perspective on how ecotourism can work on a large scale and still be sustainable, while tourism’s latest commercial success story Wotif.com founder Graeme Wood stirs his own pot of issues. Best practice case studies will also address critical challenges such as overcoming indigenous tourism issues, balancing park protection and use, educating future leaders, branding and destination planning, understanding changing tourism markets and community attitudes, and nurturing partnerships. Some 10 keynote speakers and more than 20 plenary session delegates have been drawn, nationally and internationally, from a knowledge base of private sector operators; NGOs; National Parks and Protected Area Managers, State and Regional Tourism Organisations, Government agencies; education institutions; consultants; and the media. The Victorian Government’s Department of Sustainability and Environment, Tourism Victoria and Parks Victoria are major sponsors of the Ecotourism Australia Conference in Melbourne and regional Victoria. For further information – including to download registration forms – visit: www.ecotourism.org.au/conference/. Media Enquiries:
Ms Susan McDarra – P 0408 77 88 64 or media@ecotourism.org.au ENDS For more information contact: |
