Wagga has so many cool things, including a Monopoly game, so why aren’t we doing more to promote the town? Photo: Chris Roe.
Wagga Wagga is a pretty cool place to live, there’s no doubting that.
We have all the essentials, great sports facilities and a growing food and entertainment hub, but I ask you this: What is our big drawcard?
We have festivals galore in the form of annual comedy shows, Spring Jam, Fusion Botanical and the Festival of W, and while all of these are fantastic, they’re only a few weekends a year, so what about the remaining 48 or so weeks of the calendar?
If you agree with my previous statement, may I direct you to Wagga Beach, the two Museum of the Riverina sites, Lake Albert, the Aviation Museum, Wagga Zoo and Aviary, the Botanic Gardens, the cinema precinct, the Civic Precinct and the Murrumbidgee Turf Club.
The point I’m trying to make is this: Why isn’t the city promoting these locations?
We’re now almost a month into summer and there hasn’t been a single ad on TV, radio or online to promote the beach and/or the Oasis Aquatic Centre. Why not?
From time to time, I personally forget they exist, so how are people in surrounding areas supposed to know?
This is such a missed opportunity for our region! For three months of the year, is the only “beach” within cooee not getting a look-in?
It would be so easy, too! Just put a sign 30 or so minutes out on either side of the Sturt Highway. It doesn’t have to be the beach, either.
Imagine you’re doing a Sydney-to-Melbourne trip. You’re halfway through, the kids are screaming in the back, your stomach is rumbling and you could use half an hour or so to recharge.
Twenty minutes out, you see a sign, “Stop by the Museum of the Riverina, free entry, open seven days a week”.
Wagga has so much to offer not only the Riverina but visitors from across the state, yet it feels as though we are too scared to showcase it. Local accommodation businesses are feeling the pinch too. One business owner, who wished to remain anonymous, said he had to make his yearly budget in only a couple of months, particularly June and July, when Wagga’s two biggest festivals are held. The remaining nine months are ghost towns.
If there were a regular influx of visitors to the city, it would also fix Wagga’s problem of a lack of accommodation. As a reporter who has covered many events in town, one of the most frequently asked questions I hear when a big sporting event like a Raiders or Giants game comes to town is: Where are people supposed to stay?
The answer is always Airbnb or one of the smaller towns outside of Wagga. This opens a whole other can of worms about investment properties and steering people out of the CBD and whatnot, but that’s a topic for another time.
If there were a regular presence for places and natural resources we already have, more accommodation businesses would be willing to give Wagga a go and then questions about where people can stay would be less and less common.
As we move towards the 2025/26 budget and quieter time of year, I ask Wagga Wagga City Council and other stakeholders across town: Why not invest in Wagga’s future by promoting what we already have? A festival is great, but why not tell everyone about the great things we have here all year round?
Just a thought.
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