Part 2 Town Centre Development Strategy

The second major part of the Tweed Heads Town Centre development strategy is a strategy to capitalise in the substructural tourism market that exists in the Gold Coast region, but at present largely ignores the town centre area.

The tourism strategy is an integral part of the town centre strategy in that it is designed to enhance the town centres economic diversity and provide facilities and attractions that will also appeal to Town Centre visitors, residents and workers.

The key to creating a tourism friendly atmosphere in Tweed Heads is people. In its simplest form it means pedestrians and retail / food and beverage patrons.

Tourism would be enhanced with a large local resident population already using and enjoying the facilities. This will be achieved in part through an increase in residential accommodation in the immediate vicinity of the town centre.

Traditional tourism accommodation (other than the proposed extended stay accommodation) would also contribute, but its arrival is likely to be delayed until it can be shown to be commercially viable. As a first stage other attractions need to be put in place as 'loss leaders' to attract the commercial investments.

The activities that tourists are most likely to engage in include the following:

1. Shopping
2. Walking
3. Eating and Drinking
4. Swimming

The following are recommended to capitalise on tourist preferences:

Jack Evans Boatharbour

The boat harbour is a venue for a variety of specialised uses such as sail and surf life saving training, snorkelling, scuba diving instruction and swimming lessons. However, the boat harbour and adjacent park generate little weekday activity and attract minimal visitation from tourists. This under-utilised facility can become the key to providing Tweed Heads with a major multi-purpose attraction that will overcome the impression that will activate the Tweed side of Griffith/Boundary Street, and provide a vibrant recreational precinct for both residents and visitors.

It is proposed to convert a portion of the boat Harbour in to a swimming lagoon. The Queensland government has recently created similar facilities in Airlie Beach, Townsville and Cairns. Each of those centres has tourists but no beach. These facilities have proved to be very popular and have revitalised their tourism industries. The Boat Harbour is a ready-made lagoon that is under utilised because of its alternative use and current designation as a boat harbour.

It will be necessary to isolate a shallow pool for younger children, possibly by means of a weir and bridge or some form of water-scaping. A children's playground should adjoin the children's pool so that it becomes a popular place for mothers to bring their children during the day.

The adjacent Chris Cunningham Park can be equipped with a full range of BBQ and picnic facilities to encourage families to use it at weekends and draw during the week. It will also become a valuable facility for younger people living in medium density apartment accommodation in the Town Centre.

The attraction of the Lagoon can be enhanced with the addition of a feature fountain that can become an icon for the town centre. It may also be provided with a floating stage for concerts with the audience sitting on the banks of Cunningham Park.

A pedal boat hire operation would provide an eye-catching attraction to encourage people and families to make regular outings.

Although the lagoon would be a loss leader, benefits would include more visitors and residents in the town centre, improved land values, flow-on expenditure to nearby retail facilities, more safety and an iconic reason for visitors to come to Tweed Heads.

Walking is a major tourist activity - the Gold Coast beaches will confirm that on any early morning or late afternoon. It is recommended that a walkway be constructed around the whole circumference of the lagoon as a first stage.

Later stages can extend it to Duranbah Beach and all the way around the river to The Anchorage and its natural Keith Curran Reserve to Discovery Point opposite the Trawler Wharf.

This walk would be unique to the Gold Coast. It is expected to become very popular with nature lovers and eco-tourists as the opposite bank of the river is in its natural state for the full length of the walk.

Exercise and kilometre points can be installed at intervals for the fit and seats for the less active.

Boating and Ferries

There is potential to base a ferryboat at or near Jack Evans Boatharbour to provide tourists with access to Letitia Spit. A tourist activity may be able to be arranged between the local aborigines and coach companies to provide tourists - particularly those from overseas - with a natural experience on Letitia Spit that is unlike anything else in Australia. It is expected that guided bush tucker walks and beach-fishing instruction would be very popular.

The 'Catch a Crab' tours further up the Tweed River are already one of the most popular coach tours with overseas visitors to Gold Coast. They are constantly asking for more nature experiences and the potential exists here to put Tweed Heads firmly on the international eco-tourist map.

Boat cruises up the Tweed River also could leave from this area.

Cultural Centre/Regional Showcase

Tweed and Coolangatta Tourism Inc. (TACTIC) has proposed a cultural/ regional showcase centre in the town centre. The facility would be a regional showcase featuring all facets of the Tweed region. It would link the products of the Tweed with visitor markets and would include the following elements:

• Visitor information
• Retailing highlighting local products
• Food and Agriculture grown in the shire could be highlighted in an adjoining restaurant whilst seasonal crops, bush foods and agricultural festivals could also be promoted. Space for presentations and meet the producer type promotions would also be valid uses.
• Aboriginal culture features very strongly in advertisements used to attract overseas visitors to Australia. Yet only a small proportion of them come into contact with a real aboriginal cultural experience in centres like Alice Springs and Cairns. The Gold Coast has no such centre and overseas visitors on the popular Gold Coast/Sydney tours have no opportunity to come into close contact with this culture.
• Other Arts and Culture of the region could also feature in the facility taking advantage of the wealth of creativity within the Tweed Region. This would include performance arts linked to an outdoor performance area and visual arts including exhibits and working galleries of pottery, painting, woodworking and other manufactured art products. Art classes could also be held in such a facility by artists in residence.
• Environmental diversity could be promoted with displays ranging from the rainforest to agriculture, wetlands and the beaches. This would also allow any environmental initiatives to be displayed in a controlled public setting and help sustain the feeling of public ownership among residents.
• Health and Lifestyle promotion and information including a surf culture exhibit bush medicine, massage and day spa facilities.

This type of facility would not be a standard museum or gallery concept and the provision of a cohesive group of interactive, educational and interesting activities would further activate the areas surrounding the proposed lagoon.

If the proposed centre is built close to where the coaches park for the ferries and boat cruises it could be included in the itinerary of all coach tours and add to the Letitia Spit experience.

The experience of existing facilities suggests that cultural/ showcase centres are rarely self-sustaining. The proposal by TACTIC, which includes retail and restaurant facilities, may have the potential to be viable. However, it is recommended that a feasibility study is undertaken as a first step.

Commercial Opportunities

Activity being generated in the area by initiatives such as those outlined above will lead to the opportunity to provide refreshments to the visitors if their stay can be extended over a meal or a full day tour. This may be by way of a purpose built facility near the water, in the heart of the new Town Centre, or in Twin Towns or Tweed Mall.

Tweed Mall

The blank wall that Tweed Mall presents to the main junction of Wharf Street and Bay Streets is not compatible with a revitalised Tweed Heads Town Centre.

This corner of Tweed Mall needs to be open to the streets with tourist-oriented shops and pavement cafes servicing visitors to the new Lagoon. Such a transformation is not commercially viable until the new customers appear. The alterations however need to be planned, as far as possible, to coincide with the completion of the Lagoon and walkway, as they need to complement each other.

Some incentives may need to be offered to the owners of Tweed Mall to encourage their co-operation. In this regard the zoning of Tweed Mall needs to be investigated to incorporate residential accommodation overlooking the new Lagoon. A rezoning of this nature would considerably increase the value of the property and it should be possible to quarantine some of the capital gain to provide a major contribution to the works needed to build the walkway and enhance the Lagoon.

The more accommodation that is permitted, the greater the capital gain and therefore the greater the contribution to the public works. To the east of Tweed Mall stands the 25 storey tower of Seascape, providing a precedent for high density accommodation in this precinct.

Hotels may no longer be feasible for tourist accommodation with the advent of serviced apartments. However 'dual key' apartments provide similar accommodation when a two bedroom apartment is designed to provide both a hotel suite and one bedroom apartment in two separate lettings.

Twin Towns and Tweed Heads Bowls Club

The two Clubs are successful operations already, but their appeal could be increased and broadened to attract the wider age group of tourists and nearby residents as the plan unfolds. Increased patronage will flow from an increase in the numbers of tourist rooms, creating more jobs and more residents in the Town Centre.