Millions of dollars will be pumped into a new visitor centre at Echo Point, in a decision the Katoomba Chamber of Commerce has labeled a “waste of resources.”
The current visitor centre will be knocked down and rebuilt at a cost of $3 million this year, incorporating interactive information displays, an outdoor gathering area, and an extended concrete viewing platform.
The KCC has been pushing for years for a visitor centre to be established near the train station in Katoomba, with signage directing tourists to Echo Point.
“We are really disappointed that logic hasn’t prevailed,” said KCC president Mark Jarvis. “We are one of the few [towns] that doesn’t have tourist information at the beginning of town.”
“It’s out of step with the rest of the thinking in this country and the rest of the world. It’s not appropriate.”
Shopkeepers in Katoomba town centre regularly field questions from tourists looking for toilets and Echo Point.
Mr Jarvis said incorporating a visitor centre within the Blue Mountains Cultural Centre would be a short-term option.
The first stage of the new visitor centre will be funded by Blue Mountains City Council and the federal government.
The second stage – a multi-purpose room at a cost of $1.2 million – is currently unfunded, and the third stage, $800,000 for reconstruction of a currently closed section of the Prince Henry Cliff walk is funded.
The upgrades, which will increase the capacity of people able to visit the centre, will help cope with the 4 million tourists expected to be visiting the Blue Mountains by 2025, a council spokeswoman said.
In the draft plan for the visitor centre it states that moving the visitor centre to another location would “dislocate the visitor experience from Echo Point, and therefore reduce the ‘sense of place’ that can only be derived from a location with direct physical relationship and view lines to the Jamison Valley and the Three Sisters.”
As Echo Point and the Three Sisters is a significant Aboriginal cultural site, the council have been working closely with the traditional owners in the design of the new centre.
“Council has been working in close partnership with the traditional owners both in the design of the new visitor centre, and the surrounding platform, and in developing a refreshed approach to visitor information and interpretation,” the spokeswoman said.
“The new interpretation plan for Echo Point will reflect its importance to Aboriginal culture, and will be designed so that visitors experience an authentic understanding, appreciation and respect for the complex, deep and unbroken relationship the Gundungurra and Darug peoples have with their country.”
The current visitor centre was refurbished in 2002, following refurbishments in 1993 on the original building built in the 1980s.
Residents have until February 7 to comment on the design of the new visitor centre. View the proposal at: www.bluemountainshaveyoursay.com.au/echo-point-renewal.
