Rockhy Rejuvenated

Between now and Beef Week in May Rockhampton needs to move from Rocky Recovery to Rocky Rejuvenated. Our leaders are rightly talking up the speed of the cyclone recovery work encouraging people to come to the region for their Easter holidays, but many will remain sceptical, after all you don’t expect to hear ‘wait there is still work to do’. Beef Week though is when we not only get thousands of visitors to the region; but also state, national and international media. They are coming whether the evidence of Marcia still exists or not. How they view the city and the region will affect our tourism marketing efforts for sometime into the future. If they have accommodation on the north side or at the Coast a good many will be passing Kershaw Gardens on a daily basis. It needs to be pristine by April 30. First impression counts, we all know the importance of this, for the city during Beef Week this is magnified much much more. Rocky also needs to present a wow factor; a perfect canvas for this I believe is the river bank wall in front of Pilbeam Theatre. Perhaps local artist’s could be engaged to demonstrate their talent on this boring concrete wall that has fantastic exposure from Highway 1. But please not a “Welcome to Beef Week” sign; let’s be creative, evidence of a rejuvenated city. Evidence of a rejuvenated Rocky needs to be on every street leading to the Showgrounds. Even take the ‘Rocky Rejuvenated’ message to the streets; colourful banners along the Neville Hewitt (new) bridge intermixed with the Beef Week ones, large posters over empty shop fronts, retail staff wearing branded t-shirts. Include a competition which encourages visitors to take and share their photo’s of the region. Between the visitors and media they will be our best salespeople to tell Australia and parts of the world that Rockhampton has not only recovered from Cyclone Marcia, it is rejuvenated. ‘Rejuvenated’, it’s the one word we need them to hear (also report about) and remember when they leave. Rockhampton needs to own this word over the next few months, the more we say it the more people will believe it; as long as obvious places like Kershaw Gardens are evidence of a rejuvenated city.