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Who We Are
Flagstaff Hill Maritime Village (FHMV) operates over a 10 hectare site overlooking Lady
Bay Warrnambool. At the core of the site are the Victorian Heritage Registered original
1878 Lady Bay Lighthouses and Warrnambool Garrison precinct.
FHMV was established in in 1974 when the Warrnambool City Council and
Warrnambool Chamber Commerce developed the concept of a maritime village based around the original and derelict lighthouse and garrison areas. FHMV is now a direct business unit of Warrnambool City Council (WCC), supported by 135 community volunteers and 13.5 FTE staff.
Since that time we have established Victoria’s largest maritime museum and out maritime village welcoming over 2.4 million guests to the site.
FHMV is now Australia’s most awarded maritime heritage precinct winning a range of tourism, heritage, community and event awards.
Land Tenure
The site is currently zoned as Crown Land Recreation and Tourism reserve with an oversight from Department of Environment and Primary industry. Warrnambool City
Council are the direct operators of the site.

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recent passing of legislation relating to private investment onto national and state reserves we are unsure if this extends to Crown Land Reserves such as the FHMV site.
Whilst DSE regional managers and well respected across the state we believe their resources are stretched responding to many land management issues across their vast portfolio of sites. We have discussed with DSE officers their high priority to fire management in land management and the seasonal nature of these requirements.
WCC highlights that sites such as FHMV has a high level of heritage protection over the core heritage zone, plus local heritage planning overlays on other part of the site. WCC feels that DSE involvement in sites such as FHMV are a low priority across the DSE land database, and therefore an audit of DSE controlled land be completed to identify land parcels that could be removed from the DSE land database and handed to other stakeholders for management. Set criteria should be established to identify benchmarks for land to be transferred to suitable stakeholders, protection requirements and land use guidelines.
Transferring land from DSE land database will provide a more direct community management model and free the site from a level of administrative control.
Recommendation
 DSE complete a land database audit that prioritises their involvement in parcels of land;
 Set criteria for DSE land to be available for transfer to suitable stakeholder management;

Operational Challenges
FHMV is typical of many heritage sites that relies on business operations to finance the land and heritage values of the site. For FHMV these business operations it involves a gated precinct with entry fees, on site gift shop, accommodation, night show as well as functions and events.
Whilst FHMV has won many awards and has very high levels of consumer feedback on sites such as Tripadvisor the current business model of heritage sites is under extreme stress with the shift in regional tourism trends, lower regional dispersal by both domestic and international visitors as well a shift in the heritage tourism market.
The cost to WCC for the FHMV site has doubled in the past 4 years with a rapid decline in admissions and retail sales.
The generally fixed cost basis of operating heritage sites exposes them to downturns in visitation and retail spend. The ability to adapt business models to reflect these shifts in business expectations is restricted by both the very nature of heritage sites and the land tenure issue restricting the ability to attract private investments to the heritage site.
Heritage attractions through Victoria rely on visitation and user fees to maintain their attraction as well as the heritage values they protect and interpret.
There are a number of inhibitors to the sustainability of heritage attractions, particularly in regional areas.
 Distorted Heritage Tourism Market
The value that guests are willing to pay for heritage sites is effected by the subsidising of entry fees for major state based museums and heritage sites. With state museums offering low entry fees for general admissions underwritten by state government funding it distorts the costs associated with provided a modern contempory heritage experience.
Whilst this maybe a policy relating to affordable access to the states heritage it distorts the market for other non-state government supported projects.

Museum Victoria Entry Fees
 Adults $10
 Children and Concession Holders - Free http://museumvictoria.com.au/melbournemuseum/visiting/
Parks Victoria Heritage Sites
State government have a recent policy of free entry to Parks Victoria sites. Whilst most will recognise entry to national and state parks, the addition of heritage attractions to the free entry policy again effects heritage attractions outside this state government subsidy as well as effecting consumers willingness to pay entry fees or direct user charges to sustain heritage attractions. http://vnpa.org.au/page/publications/nature%27s ‐ voice ‐ edition ‐ 4/free ‐ entry ‐ to ‐ victoria%27s ‐ parks, ‐ and ‐ park ‐ funding ‐ review
From   Media   Release:
Free   entry   to   Victoria's   parks,   and   park   funding   review
Entry   to   all   Victoria's   national   and   metropolitan   parks   will   be   free   of   charge   from   1   July   this   year   to   encourage   people   to   get   active   in   the   great   outdoors,   the   Premier   John   Brumby   has   announced.
National   parks   that   will   now   have   free   entry   are
Wilsons   Promontory,   Mt   Buffalo,   Baw   Baw   (Mt   St
Gwinear),   Mornington   Peninsula,   Yarra   Ranges   (Mt
Donna   Buang)   and   Pt   Nepean,   as   well   as   Werribee
Park,   Coolart,   the   National   Rhododendron   Gardens   and   William   Ricketts   Sanctuary.
Other   Victorian   national   parks   already   have   free   entry.
FHMV Day Entry Fees
 Adults - $16
 Concession - $12.50
 Child - $6.50
Whilst state government museums and sites gain direct operating subsidies – some equating to $38 per visitor attending the site (Museums Victoria Annual Report

2010/11), FHMV receives only (but greatly appreciated) $20,000 per annum for a part time education officer. This $20,000 equates to just 33 cents per visitor. http://www.flagstaffhill.com/plan-your-visit/shipwrecked/times-prices/
 Scienceworks Star 6 Program
Transport access is a major cost associated for groups to attend heritage attractions.
Whilst metro area heritage sites have access to subsidised public transport, regional attractions face many challenges in attracting groups to attend the various groups and education programs delivered at heritage sites.
This issue is further complicated by the Scienceworks Green Star program. The program provides free travel costs for any Grade 6 school group to attend
Scienceworks education programs allowing easy access to the education programs.
This subsidy for transport costs directly effects other heritage attractions trying to attract school groups to their site and region.
We have placed requests to a number of inquiries to have this program extended to approved education programs across the state and we wish to highlight this issue again as a major inhibitor to a sustainable heritage and eco-tourism industry.
FHMV have attempted to overcome this issue by providing our own shuttle bus around Warrnambool providing school and railway station transfers for fee. http://museumvictoria.com.au/scienceworks/education/star-6-school-subsidy/

 Zoos Victoria – Free for Kids Program
The recently introduced subsidy that allows free entry for children to Zoos Victoria sites for children on Weekends, Public Holidays and School Holiday again directly effects the suitability of heritage and eco-tourism operations. These peak periods are vital to ensure sites can generate the revenues to sustain the operations through the various seasonal periods.
FHMV has seen a direct impact on the family attendances since the introduction of this new program for Zoos Victoria and is consistent with other heritage attractions attendances (Sovereign Hill Annual Report 11/12)
Strategic Partners Program (SPP) Education Programs Funding
This important program allows for heritage sites to develop programs targeting students and are aligned to the National Curriculum – AUSVELS. This program has a long history of providing education based programs across a wide range of sites and regional areas.
The program received reduced funding through the 2010 tri annual program resulting in many institutions being defunded, or funding considerably reduced. (Flagstaff Hill funding reduced by 32%).
Continuing to resource these programs supports regional tourism by providing a strong linkages between tourism businesses and education programs. School camps programs can be further integrated into the yearly curriculum through the delivery of
SPP approved programs.
We believe SPP approved programs also provide a suitable criteria for exploring the support of travel subsidy program similar to the Scienceworks Star 6 program. It could be introduced as a way of intergrating SPP programs with travel support to assist metro schools to explore regional areas. http://www.education.vic.gov.au/about/programs/partnerships/pages/spppartners hips.aspx

Online Presence – Heritage Attractions and Collections
The rise in opportunities that the internet provides for accessing heritage experiences as well as promoting the richness of Victoria heritage collection and experiences needs to be maximised.
Many heritage attractions and experiences have skill shortages in developing this online presence which restricts the full diversity of Victoria heritage experiences being fully exposed to online traffic. Whilst FHMV is supported by 130 volunteers and has staff resources, the skills sets required to manage collection and its online presence still remains challenging.
 Museums Australia (Victoria) Collections Victoria
One program that has built a platform for online exposure for heritage collections and experiences across larger and smaller operators has been the excellent Victorian Collections program operated by Museums
Australia (Victoria) (MA-VIC). This program has delivered a platform that allows for smaller and remote groups to raise the profile of their collections and heritage experiences.
The system has provided an easy to use online collection management system with training rolled out across the state by MA-VIC. The system now has over 12,000 items online and over 140 organisations starting to upload this rich heritage collection.
As this system develops the opportunity lies in motivating potential visitors to link the collection items, the collection and the organisation into a key motivator to travel.
Just at the Heritage Victoria mobile app allows visitors to search for heritage experiences close by using the geographic function of the app. With development the
Collection Victoria website can continue to be the platform for an enhanced exposure of
Victoria’s rich heritage collection as well as being a key link to tourism experiences across the state.

I urge you to explore the current site noting the broad range of institutions large/small and geographically spread, and the diverse and important heritage experiences and collections they expose. http://victoriancollections.net.au/
Access to Upgrade Works Interpretation Upgrades – Engagement New
Technologies
To ensure heritage sites are delivering contempory tourism experiences for future guests our sector needs to continually evolve our interpretation methods. Developing these new interpretation methods requires access to capital or project funding. With many of our heritage sites operating in a market that is distorted by the factors mentioned early, gaining access to suitable government renewal funds is an important element in maximising the impacts of heritage tourism.
We recommend that renewal funding being explored through suitable programs that has a strong emphasis on identified tourism interest in the heritage site and its links to the wider tourism economy.
Submission by Flagstaff Hill Maritime Village – Warrnambool City Council August 2013