WHENEVER I mention Wonthaggi to people in the ‘burbs they invariably ask me, where it is. They know where Phillip Island is and they either have been to, or know of Inverloch, but are often not aware of Wonthaggi.
Our shire officials have spent a fortune on building the Bass Coast Opera House, and Wonthaggi remains a dreary old ex-coal town, without rail, and with a messed up poorly designed traffic flow arrangement which results in traffic snarls worthy of inner city suburbs and a large plot of land in the town centre occupied by an apparently unusable bunch of perfectly sound brick buildings.
These are a daily monument to the paralysis of shire decision making. If the building/s have an asbestos problem, fix it, and use the buildings for homeless accommodation, or a weekly trash and treasure market, or housing for victims of domestic violence. Make a decision; it is not going away.
Wonnie needs to be marketed as a coastal town 10 minutes from beautiful beaches and not as a trading post where tourists get their supplies on their way to somewhere else.
The signage indicating that you have arrived in Wonthaggi is tired and drab, and things don’t improve from there. The place needs a thoughtful lift and promotion for businesses to attract tourist spending and the money spent on the self-aggrandisement exercise in Cowes would have been better spent in improving Wonthaggi’s image for visitors and locals alike.
Name withheld
