The Beagle Editor: A comment on the impending closure of the Narooma Tourist Information Centre together with a photo.
Some readers of The Beagle may not be aware of the major changes which are looming for the operation of the Narooma Tourist Information Centre. The Centre occupies a building in a prime position in Narooma and incorporates a lighthouse museum containing significant equipment of the Montague Island lighthouse from before it was modernised. The tourist information part of the building has been operated for the past five years largely by volunteers of the Montague Arts and Crafts Society (MACS) who also use it to display some of their art work. Together the provision by MACS of tourist information and services, their fine displays of art and crafts and the Lighthouse Museum combine artistic, historical and technological features that are a major feature of Narooma and possibly unique to NSW. Now it appears that the Eurobodalla Shire Council wishes to do away with the friendly and personal provision of information to tourists and to expect them to “curate their itineraries” from information on the web or from local businesses. It seems they wish to let out the part of the building apart from the Lighthouse Museum for some commercial organisation paying rent. This is not only likely to reduce the availability of information to tourists but, considering the way this centre currently operates, amounts to cultural vandalism. Allan Baxter
Dalmeny
