Pink lake’s potential unlocked with Federal funding

“We’re aiming to create a real experience here"

Almost half a million dollars will be spent on facilities at Lake Bumbunga, developing a premier tourist destination within the Wakefield region.

This week Federal Member for Grey, Rowan Ramsey, announced a $236K grant from the Federal Government’s Building Better Regions Fund (BBRF) to help fund the project in Lochiel.

Wakefield Regional Council and the local Progress Association have partnered up to match the Federal funding, making the total project budget just under $500K.

WRC Mayor Rodney Reid said Lake Bumbunga had become increasingly popular for tourist over the last few years, even those from overseas.

“We’ve seen a lot of interest from film makers, photographers and more. Even big names like R.M Williams, Mercedes Benz and Foxtel want to capture this natural wonder in their work,” Mayor Reid said.

“It seems that the word is really getting out about this location and the opportunity is here to capitalise on this,” Mayor Reid said. “By providing some fun and interesting things for visitors to do it will likely extend their stay and allow them to make a real day out of it.

“We’re aiming to create a real experience here with photo opportunities in front of the Loch-eel monster, a sculpture park, a nature themed playground, and best of all - it’s just a stone’s throw from Jitter Bean Café.

“There will also be visitor friendly infrastructure to cope with the numbers, like a sizeable carpark, town entrance signs, picnic facilities, free Wi-Fi, information signage, a boardwalk for people to explore the lake further, and new public toilets and foot wash bays.

“Developing Lake Bumbunga has been a long held desire for the local Progress Association and so it’s really satisfying knowing we will be working with them on this to make it happen.

WRC’s application was for the following tourism facilities at Lake Bumbunga:

• a picnic area with shade and seating,
• scenic frame with social media hashtags for easy viral, organic promotion,
• installation of a Wi-Fi hotspot,
• new toilets including disabled and ambient, and bootwash installed to the exterior of the building,
• interpretive signage outlining the environmental, local history and folklore information, as well as directional signage for various walking trails (English and Mandarin),
• extension of the existing walking trail,
• town entrance signs,
• a boardwalk with decking area,
• nature-based playground, and
• a selection of germane sculptures.

A concept map has been created to display the project and show the different elements supplied through Federal or local funding. Please note that this map is not to scale, it is only an artist’s impression of what the space might look like and the location and type of facilities may change.