Latest / 360 with Katie Woolf / Katie Woolf spoke with Parks and Wildlife Division, Senior Director Commercial & Community Partnerships Dr Aggie Wegner regarding The Window on The Wetlands opportunity

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Katie Woolf spoke with Parks and Wildlife Division, Senior Director Commercial & Community Partnerships Dr Aggie Wegner regarding The Window on The Wetlands opportunity · 360 with Katie Woolf

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  Speaker 1: The Department of Environment, Parks and Water Security. You're currently
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  Speaker 1: seeking expressions of interest from interested commercial operators to manage
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  Speaker 1: the eighteen point five hectare site Window on the Wetlands.
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  Speaker 1: Now joining me on the line to tell us a
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  Speaker 1: little bit more about the situation. Department of Environment, Parks
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  Speaker 1: and Water Security, Parks and Wildlife Division, Senior Director Commercial
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  Speaker 1: and Community Partnerships, Doctor Aggie Wegner, Good morning to you.
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  Speaker 2: Hello, Good morning Katie.
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  Speaker 1: How are you very well? Aggie? Tell us a little
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  Speaker 1: bit about this expression of interest and well how people
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  Speaker 1: can maybe find out more.
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  Speaker 2: So, Yes, we do have an exciting opportunity to take
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  Speaker 2: on the commercial operation of Windows on the Wetlands. As
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  Speaker 2: many of our listeners know and follow us to Parks
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  Speaker 2: and Wildlife. There was an expression of interest out last
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  Speaker 2: year which unfortunately was unsuccessful, but since then we widened
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  Speaker 2: the objective of the expression of interest to seek the
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  Speaker 2: commercial operation of the site of the whole Windows on
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  Speaker 2: the Wetland side. It is an amazing venue. It has
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  Speaker 2: it's right on top the highest point of the Adelaide,
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  Speaker 2: real floodplains with amazing views as we know, but also
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  Speaker 2: in easy access to Darwin within a whole area of
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  Speaker 2: tourism attractions, jumping crocodiles, coroberry billibong on the way to
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  Speaker 2: Cuco Doo, the Purple Mango Cafe in close proximity, and
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  Speaker 2: it was always a treasured stopover for Darwinians going to
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  Speaker 2: Cucko Doo, but also just for day trips. So the
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  Speaker 2: opportunity provided for an operator to come in to present
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  Speaker 2: us with some ideas, with their vision, what can be done,
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  Speaker 2: what they think the site can delivers. It's an amazing
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  Speaker 2: opportunital experience within that area. Yeah, very rich culture.
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  Speaker 1: It certainly sounds Yeah, it certainly sounds like it could be, Aggie,
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  Speaker 1: Why do you think that the previous expression of interest
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  Speaker 1: was unsuccessful?
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  Speaker 2: The previous one last year? What we did is we
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  Speaker 2: had it open as to run as a visitor center,
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  Speaker 2: so exactly as we used to run it beforehand, and
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  Speaker 2: we changed that to have it a lot broader to
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  Speaker 2: come here, come in with new ideas, so it doesn't
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  Speaker 2: necessarily have to be run as a visitor center. Okay,
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  Speaker 2: so what are there?
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  Speaker 1: What are the other options I suppose for people if
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  Speaker 1: if they don't run it as a visitor center, what
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  Speaker 1: could the other options be?
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  Speaker 2: That's why we're looking forward to hear from operators operate it.
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  Speaker 2: But it might be a combination of some form of
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  Speaker 2: visitor viewing, some cafes potentially in restaurants, some education facilities,
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  Speaker 2: cultural center and these are just ideas we kind of
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  Speaker 2: throw around. Ideally eve an operator has a fantastic idea
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  Speaker 2: knowing the site. We do have a site visit on
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  Speaker 2: site as well, so people can come and have a
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  Speaker 2: look at it, have some ideas we haven't even thought about.
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  Speaker 2: That's the exciting bit it really is.
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  Speaker 1: And look, I think it's wonderful. You know that that
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  Speaker 1: hopefully we wind up in a situation here where you know,
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  Speaker 1: it gets a real sort of new lease on life.
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  Speaker 1: When is that site visit going to happen? If there
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  Speaker 1: is anybody out there listening today who thinks, oh hang on,
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  Speaker 1: this might be something that could we could take part in.
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  Speaker 2: That's right. So the site visit is scheduled for the
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  Speaker 2: sixteenth of April at eleven o'clock. We do have some
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  Speaker 2: posts on our Facebook site as well with a little
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  Speaker 2: video clip which helps to get a sense of how
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  Speaker 2: the site looks like. The ten days open through our
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  Speaker 2: anti government tender website. So please log on, register your interest,
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  Speaker 2: come out to the side. If viewers are listening, viewers
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  Speaker 2: rather list it.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, And.
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  Speaker 2: So the expression of interest is open for the full month,
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  Speaker 2: so closes on the fifth of May. Hoot. Plenty of
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  Speaker 2: time in particularly having a couple of public holiday yeah,
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  Speaker 2: coming up, there's plenty of opportunity to drive out and
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  Speaker 2: have a look around.
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  Speaker 1: And Aggie, is the preference here that it's a local
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  Speaker 1: operator or is there actually an opportunity for you know,
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  Speaker 1: for somebody interstate to move to the territory and run
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  Speaker 1: window on the wetlands.
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  Speaker 2: There's always the opportunity. We do follow value for territory. Yeah,
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  Speaker 2: so that is one of our key drivers, and we
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  Speaker 2: are very aware and really would like to obviously take
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  Speaker 2: into consideration the cultural aspect, our local cultural aspect of it.
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  Speaker 1: Absolutely. Now, if anybody listening at the moment does want
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  Speaker 1: to check out that facility, like you said, there is
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  Speaker 1: a link on Facebook. What's the Facebook.
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  Speaker 2: Page that is on the Parks and Wildlife Awesome with
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  Speaker 2: Parks and White Life Awesome.
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  Speaker 1: Well, I really appreciate your time this morning, doctor Aggie Wegner.
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  Speaker 1: Lovely to speak with you, and thank you so much
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  Speaker 1: for giving us a bit more information about this expression
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  Speaker 1: of interest.
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  Speaker 2: Wonderful Katie, Thank you walking forward to many excited opportunities
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  Speaker 2: and the expression of interest coming in.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, I hope so. And we might catch up with
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  Speaker 1: you again down the track to find out how it's gone,
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  Speaker 1: because I think that's what we're all hoping is that
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  Speaker 1: we do have some great expressions of interest.
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  Speaker 2: Absolutely, I would be more than happy.
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  Speaker 1: To thank you. Thanks Aggie, and thank you and that
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  Speaker 1: number if you would like to call through today eight
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  Speaker 1: nine four one one O four nine. And look, I
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  Speaker 1: reckon there's going to be a lot of very relieved
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  Speaker 1: people listening this morning, because there were so many of
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  Speaker 1: you who were really quite concerned when the window on
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  Speaker 1: the Wetlands closed and had sort of questioned why we
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  Speaker 1: wound up in this situation where, you know, where it
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  Speaker 1: wasn't able to continue operating. But as you heard there
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  Speaker 1: from Aggie, they did conduct that previous EOI, that expression
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  Speaker 1: of interest, and it was not successful. And they've obviously
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  Speaker 1: identified the fact that you know, that they had wanted
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  Speaker 1: it to operate pretty similarly to what it had previously
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  Speaker 1: operated and that maybe wasn't commercially viable for people who
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  Speaker 1: were considering it, but yeah, by the sound of it,
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  Speaker 1: they're hoping that maybe somebody's going to come forward with
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  Speaker 1: something a little bit different.