General News
29 September, 2022
Tourism boost for Minyip
The beauty of Minyip’s Main Street is set to be amplified as Minyip Progress Association lock in grant funding for new street flags.
The beauty of Minyip’s Main Street is set to be amplified as Minyip Progress Association lock in grant funding for new street flags.
The flags will be hung throughout the year with surprising facts about the town, it’s history and those that lived there to drive tourism on a route across the town.
Minyip Progress Association executive Chris Niewand said the group is already primed with plenty of facts to apply to the flags.
“There’s lots of things that people might not be aware of, like the Eureka flag from the original Battle of the Eureka Stockade had been in a cupboard in a Minyip home for a long time in a cupboard and has now been donated to the Ballarat Eureka Museum,” she said.
“For example, there was a Chinese man, Ah Fook, who was murdered in Minyip back in the ‘80's.
“We had a famous poet and philosopher that lived here for a long time before he passed away ... they’re just different thigs about people that they might not know, but they know the name already, like Warracknabeal’s association with Nick Cave.
“It’s just things like those that people might not know about Minyip.”
The association's plan is to have the flags brightly decorated on both sides hung high and more information about the subject on each flag along the side of the street on a plaque.
“We haven’t really got a central attraction like the Woods Museum in Rupanyup or Stick Shed in Murtoa, so we’re just trying to enhance our Main Street block as a walking (track), so you can read those flags and learn the history of Minyip,” Ms Niewand said.
“Our main street is our most attractive area, we’ve got great buildings getting done up, we’ve just had stage two of Smith Park completed, it’s amazing and we just want people to come into Minyip and stop.
“We’re hoping that people will drive in, spot it, thinks it’s interesting and have a stop to look around.”
The flags come as just one project up the community’s sleeve for town enhancement which tie in with the Smith Park development, two new cabins for the town’s caravan park and a dump point created at the fuel station.
“It’s important for our town to keep developing things for people to come and visit,” Ms Niewand said.
“There’s plenty to see and there’s more and more always coming ... all our little towns are working hard to promote tourism and build up works like the Silo Art.”