How a dusty, coal-mining town doubled its tourist numbers in less than a year

Must you were to force via Collie, in Western Australia’s South West, you may quiz to be greeted by an ocean of high-vis clothing and the sweeping waves of the state’s largest initiate-minimize coal mine. 

Or no longer it is a kind of historical, dusty, weathered mining towns that you probably can no longer exactly label “Instagram-considerable”.

But in less than a year Collie,  213 kilometres south of Perth, has uncovered original riches and put itself on the map as a tourism destination.

Many towns are experiencing welcome tourism spikes as Western Australians holiday in their very gain backyard resulting from the pandemic-induced border restrictions.  

But tourism operators in this coal-mining town appear to have struck gold.

Collie Guests Centre manager Janine Page said the series of tourists had doubled in the past nine months.

“Or no longer it is been a lot busier than anticipated.”

Mural a portrait of success

Ms Page credits a series of major facelifts the town has passed via lately for its newfound popularity.

Certainly one of many sizable drawcards is the stunning 8,000-square-metre mural painted on the facet of the Wellington Dam, which was unveiled in February this year.

“Or no longer it is also bringing moderately a few tour buses all the way down to Collie as smartly.”

Several tourism operators said the mural was “Instagram-considerable”, as was the picturesque Black Diamond Lake.

Stephen Greville, who owns Kiosk at the Dam, said the surprising popularity of Collie as a tourism destination had seen the series of tourists increase “a hundred-fold”.

Tourism growth to continue

The town’s shire president, Sarah Stanley, also runs a lodge and said the handiest challenge facing the town now was the potential for it to bustle out of accommodation.

But she welcomes the tourism influx, saying it is the beginning of a original chapter for Collie.