Visit rural NSW following The Canola Trail

The occasion was the launch of the Canola Trail, an initiative between the Junee, Coolamon and Temora councils, collaborating to promote the attractions of their locales to visitors from intra- and interstate, and the ever growing numbers of international visitors enjoying the safety of Australia.

Each shire has a significant existing tourism attraction – Temora’s Aviation Museum, Junee’s Licorice Factory and Coolamon’s Cheese factory – providing the starting points for wider exploration of these three areas.

Hidden gems - farms - is one of the major themes attracting visitors, especially from urban areas enabling meaningful connection between country and city dwellers.

Owner of Lashbrook Farm, Anna Lashbrook, used the analogy of chooks and people preferring to have a safe central location and, with intermittent attractions to capture attention, they will gradually venture further away from the main attraction.

“Chooks and urban people are quite similar when you watch both in a new situation and location. The familiarity of something big and solid is the lynch for them, knowing they can return to this bastion of security if they need to,” she explained.

“As more confidence is developed, the desire to explore further increases to the point where the wide open spaces are eventually preferred.”

The success of Coolamon Cheese continues to increase since the opening in September, 2016. The refurbishment of the old Coolamon IGA grocery store into a contemporary venue resplendent with artifacts and memorabilia from the area draws hundreds of visitors to this beautiful small town every week. 

The Canola Trail includes shopping at many beautiful, quirky and individual retailers in each town including homewares, clothing, antiques, collectibles, salvaged farm items, flash trash and jewelry.

Accommodation through the Canola Trail is varied and catering for all tastes and budgets.  Rita and Lyndsey, ‘Hazeldean’ Quandrey Road, Ariah Park, have two large and beautifully fitted railway carriages on their working property.

“Our first carriage was ready in 2006,” explained Mrs Bromfield, “and we have a high percentage of return visitors, especially for the bi-annual Temora Aviation Museum’s WarBirds event.”

“Some of our favourite return visitors is a family who come in winter with their telescopes to study the stars. As there is no light pollution, the visibility is some of the clearest in the world, so we are told.”

Food and beverages are one of the key attractions for all visitors and the commitment to sourcing and supplying locally grown and produced ingredients and foods is adding to farm-gate opportunities for farmers willing to take responsibility for the paddock-to-pocket value adding. 

Ganmain Garlic is a side venture for John and Michelle Booth and daughters Kaitlin and Georgia. A one-acre plot is now five and a dedicated curing and packaging shed has been built as the kitchen table has been outgrown.  Michelle Booth cold smokes the garlic as per the centuries-old practice in France. However, Mr Booth is frequently called in from his cattle enterprise to assist with packaging and manning stalls at farmers markets as the small enterprise keeps expanding.

“The reason for cold-smoking was to prevent the garlic from sprouting once harvested and there’d be a continuous supply from one harvest to the next,” Mrs Booth explained. “We also make a range of preserves including pickled garlic, tomato relish, garlic sauce, vinaigrette, and hampers.”

“Having a number of retail outlets and markets but especially restaurants incorporating Ganmain Garlic on their menus means our little enterprise is increasing every year.” 

Destination NSW is spending $43 million over the next four years to promote rural and regional NSW. The establishment of Destination Riverina Murray as one of the areas in the state is providing more local autonomy for the tourism sector. One of the latest initiatives is the competition seeking visitors to submit their photos and films for judging in September.

NSW Minister for Tourism and Major Events, Adam Marshall, said the “What I Love About Holidays in NSW” campaign is travel enthusiasts and locals showcase the vast array of experiences, landscapes and attractions on offer in rural and regional NSW.

“We are encouraging locals, visitors, avid photographers and filmmakers to capture their extraordinary holiday experiences in NSW, and share them with the world,” Mr Marshall said.

To take part in the campaign, people are urged to share upload their videos to visitnsw.com/ilovensw, and share on Twitter and Instagram using #ILoveNSW.

“The very best video contributions will then be used in a curated series of eight short films, that will promote rural and regional NSW as an outstanding holiday and short break destination, capturing the attention and imagination of holidaymakers,” Mr Marshall said.

“Tourism offers great prospects and benefits for our regional areas. In the year ended September 2016, rural and regional NSW welcomed 21.4 million international and domestic overnight visitors who injected more than $10.7 billion into those local economies,” Mr Marshall said.

Anna Lashbrook and her family recently opened their farm to visitors for the first time and were delighted with the number of people who attended. “We had people from Sydney, Canberra and Wagga which was incredible. I now realise there is a huge desire for visitors to get up close and literally cuddle our chooks (who also love being cuddled) and to get close to their food,” she said.

The Canola Trail #canolatrail is an exciting initiative to bridge the country-city divide and create closer connections between people, their food and learn through their fingertips about rural life and business.