Someone’s gotta do it

There's no chance that the thieving Alpine council would advertise Bright like this in Melbourne. They just levy a special rate and then spend our money ... on themselves!

I’ve put another entry in Tourism Australia’s There’s nothing like … competition. The photo was taken on the Rail Trail directly behind GG but it actually looks a lot better in the full size – click HERE. It makes me angry that the Alpine council doesn’t also promote Bright with this type of imagery. Well, they don’t promote it all, despite the fact they charge me (and other operators) an additional $1,200 per year on my council rates on the pretext that it’s for tourism promotion. The money is then wasted – mainly on wages. This compulsory levy almost amounts to misappropriation and/or theft and I’ve had enough. It’s time for the Alpine council to: Drop the special rate!

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Says it all

Screen shot from the Alpine Council's staff organisation page - at least they're telling the truth.

I seriously doubt that any council could get more out of touch with its ratepayers than what they are here in Alpine. The ever-expanding bureaucracy, the sick joke that is its tourism promotion arm that is funded by a punitive and wasteful 50% rates surcharge on commercial properties, the failure to embark on any serious upgrade of Bright’s CBD (despite the Bright Future project being adopted as policy nearly 10 years ago) while spending nearly $2 million to purchase and upgrade the Bright Indoor Pool are just a few of the Alpine council’s key failures. So who is to blame for the farce our council has become, the administration or the councillors? Or both? And, more importantly, how do we fix it?

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No junk mail

Something weird has happened and I’m wondering if it’s just me: I haven’t received any junk mail for nearly two days. Not that I mind but usually, as my email address is pretty much public property, I am inundated with the stuff. Thankfully, Outlook sorts most of it out but it’s kinda weird not receiving mail with headings like these:

• Get a bigger penis
• Make her scream
• F.G.M.O.

You know how they go. Maybe they’ve just given up – I never open them!

UPDATE: It was a problem created by changing hosts for the Grevillea Gardens website. Junk mail (and other emails) now getting back to normal.

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Businesses vote with their feet

It's a clear message.

Alpine Shire Tourism Awards Dinner cancelled

If ever there was proof that the Alpine council’s tourism promotion program is out of step with the industry, irrelevant and useless, here it is:

Tonight’s $50 per head Alpine Shire Tourism awards Dinner has been cancelled due to lack of ticket sales.

It’s about time other operators woke up and withdrew their support of the council’s so-called tourism drive. I’ve been saying for years that it’s a white elephant and a bureaucratic waste of money. The council, in all its 15 years plus of sucking money out of local industry to fund its charade, has achieved nothing of benefit to the local tourist industry and has actually held it back by draining several million dollars that should and could have been put to better use. Like how about promoting Bright on TV in Melbourne?

The first thing that needs to happen is for the special rate that the council charges on commercial properties (above & beyond normal rates) to fund its tourism drive to be dropped. Its tourism department should then be abandoned and it should be left up to the local industry (particularly here in Bright) to promote itself. Getting rid of the special rate would be a bloody good start as it would immediately free up a huge amount of operator capital to start up an industry-led promotional group – you know, one that actually advertises!

But it’s up to the operators to get together and demand this. Ball’s in their court.

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And this is news?

What are the Wallabies?

Apparently, over there in the country the world forgot – aka The Shaky Isles - the Australian Rugby Union team lost 20 – 6 to the New Zealand All Blacks in the semi final of the World Cup. Now, this might be a big deal to the Kiwis, and it might even be a big deal to Aussies living in NSW & Queensland (although, as I understand it, Rugby Union is only the minor code of the game and they’re more into something called Rugby League up there) but, to those of us in the rest of the country and particularly in Victoria, it’s like this:
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There’s nothing like … making an effort

At least someone is trying to promote Bright.

I’ve put this entry in Tourism Australia’s There’s nothing like …  competition (although my photo looks a lot better in its full size). I’m surprised there are not many entries of Bright and surrounds, as it’s easily one of the more picturesque and promotable towns in Australia. In fact I recommend you go to my entry page at TA’s website  (here) and compare it to the competition (by clicking on “gallery”) to see what I mean. I might even put some more entries in, as the competition still has another 2 weeks to run - and the prizes for the winners are pretty good too! It’s shameful that the Alpine council’s tourism arm doesn’t try to promote Bright with images like this one. Well, actually, it’s shameful that they don’t really try to promote Bright at all.

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Is GG a traffic hazard too?

This is why motorists stop and take photos - click on image to enlarge.

While I’m indulging myself with posts about Grevillea Gardens I might as well go the whole hog and put up the latest pics of our azaleas & other blooms that I took yesterday. And I’m not the only one taking snaps of our gardens – there’s been a constant stream of people pulling up out the front with their cameras, which is usual at this time of year. In fact the colours are so bright I’m wondering if Alpine councillor ‘Nasty Narda’ Cain might admonish me too for distracting traffic and possibly causing an accident, just like she did to Ray Dyer over his Mt Buffalo cars? That’d be a hoot. There are more happy snaps ‘over the fold’ (click on “more” below – and click on each image to enlarge). Cheers:

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Anyone for tennis?

The GG tennis court - click on image to enlarge.

One of the main reasons I haven’t been blogging much lately is because of the amount of work I’ve been doing around the property as we get ready for the busy season (after the quietest last 4 months on record!), and one of those jobs was remarking the tennis court and installing a new net. Oh yeah, and cutting about 3 feet off that bloody hedge around the pool. The court is technically 3/4 size but actually it’s the same width as a normal singles court, which is why I didn’t bother remarking the ‘tram lines’ – what’s the point of that? As I’ve written at the GG website, I’m pretty sure that ours is the only holiday rental property in Bright that has a tennis court. We don’t charge our guests to use it and we even have new racquets and decent balls for their use. So what are you waiting for?

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Sorry, back soon

I’ve been down in Melbourne for most of the week following the sad and unexpected death of a close extended family member. I’m sorry for the lack of new posts but I’ll get back to blogging more regularly soon. In the meantime please consider this an open thread to say whatever you want. How about that letter in the Bright Observer calling for a new indoor pool, even though the council has already spent well over $1 million purchasing and renovating the existing one? Will that issue ever go away? It just typifies what’s wrong with this town.