Like many other communities before it, the NSW city of Coffs Harbour is desperately seeking to assess how it can ensure the maximum number of travellers still visit once the new bypass comes into effect.
Life in the home of the Big Banana is about to take a dramatic change with the bypass due to open some time in December.
One of the ways it hopes to persuade grey nomads and other tourists to join the trucks in staying out of the city centre is to boost signage.
The City of Coffs Harbour says it will continue to lobby the NSW Government for a ‘modest’ increase in tourism signage on the Pacific Highway in preparation for post-bypass life.
Blue 'services and facilities' signage on the Pacific Highway just south of the coming Coffs Harbour Bypass. PIC: City of Coffs Harbour
An audit of the existing highway through the heart of Coffs identified signage for almost 20 significant places of interest, including the National Marine Science Centre, The Clog Barn, Sealy Lookout, Park Beach Plaza, and the airport and hospital.
The council has been in ongoing talks with Transport for NSW and the relevant Minister about extra signage since the start of this year, but there has not yet been an agreement for additional signage other than what is standard, being:
“Council’s Highway Bypass Integration Committee and City staff have worked hard to mount a case for a small increase in tourism signage as we will remain a premier visitor destination after the bypass,” Mayor Nikki Williams said.
City Infrastructure Director Andrew Beswick said Transport for NSW had agreed to new highway signage for The Big Banana due to its state significance.
“We’ve noted that areas to our south and north have been permitted brown attraction signage,” he said. “Including for Ricardoes Tomatoes, Cassegrain Winery and Billabong Zoo at Port Macquarie, and up north for New Italy Museum, the Byron Bay Wildlife Sanctuary and The Farm at Ewingsdale.”
The council would like to see:
“We are seeking a modest increase in signage and will continue to work with Transport and other agencies to achieve an improved outcome which supports Coffs Harbour as a destination as well as the broader visitor economy,” Mr Beswick said.
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We won’t stop if there is a service centre for fuel on each side of the bypass. We travel through COFFS about 4 times a year and it is at least a half hour of our lives we will never get back each time we pass through. Heavy congested roads, impatient drivers cutting in and out. Can do without it.