Agritourism at work in the murchison
Wooleen Station in Western Australia’s remote Murchison region is embracing Agritourism strategies in Australia’s Golden Outback.
Great barista-made coffee is served at Wooleen Station’s new cafe
DIVERSIFYING BUSINESS ON THE LAND
The Murchison region in Western Australia’s Midwest is one of the state’s main pastoral areas. It is sparsely populated and characterised by large pastoral leases running cattle and sheep. The landscape is an arid mix of rich red earth and ancient rock formations in Yamatji Country, home of the Wajarri people.
Over the past 2 years, DTM Tourism has been working with a collection of Station Stay owners across both Australia’s Golden Outback and Australia’s Coral Coast, to guide them in diversifying their incomes by embracing Agritourism opportunities through our PRIME (c) Mentoring Program. This initiative is an example of tactical implementation of the National Agritourism Strategy Framework and specifically aligned to Australia’s Golden Outback’s Agritourism Action Plan.
Throughout the program, we’ve had the pleasure of working with Frances and David Pollock who own Wooleen Station. Their property covers over a quarter of a million acres of picturesque outback and is a working cattle station. Wooleen is also well known nationwide for playing a leading role in preserving and sustaining the unique ecology of WA’s Southern Rangelands, through regenerative farming practices. Frances and David have been proactively embracing tourism on Wooleen for many years, however 2023 has seen Wooleen undertake their most ambitious projects to date.
In 2023, Wooleen Station launched a Dingo Encounters tour; an instant hit with guests
AUTHENTICITY AT THE HEART OF VISITOR EXPERIENCE DESIGN
David and Frances have made no secret of their preference for embracing the presence of wild dingoes on their property. Their concern for the degradation of the Rangelands due to overgrazing pressure from not only stock, but kangaroos and feral goats is well known, albeit controversial to some. However, the Pollocks maintain that eliminating the use of poisons and other mitigation strategies is a positive approach to restoring natural order and their land has felt the benefit.
“The kangaroos and goats were the biggest problem, because we could never exclude them from areas to rest the land. Now the dingoes have come back, rotational grazing is achieavable.” says David.
A chance conversation with a new staff member in 2022, revealed a surprising new possibility. Zali came to Wooleen with her partner for seasonal work and with previous experience in working with dingoes at a sanctuary in Victoria. Wooleen’s signature experience includes accommodation and dining in the 100+ year old heritage-listed Homestead. Zali offered to give an after-dinner talk on dingoes and their role on Wooleen for Homestead guests, and the seed of a tour was planted.
Two beautiful sanctuary-raised dingoes ( Eulalia and Steve ) were adopted by Frances and David, finding their forever home on Wooleen Station. After refining concepts for a proposed tour with their DTM mentor , the Wooleen team was assisted to implement Rezdy as their online booking system, enabling advance bookings, online payments and upselling of merchandise. Two Dingo Encounter tours were launched in April 2023, teaching guests about the significance of dingoes on the station and their role as an apex predator across Australia. Not surprisingly, the tours have been a great success, achieving a primary goal in Agritourism through demonstrating the contrast of farm and city life using authentic, compelling storytelling.
The original shearing shed has been repurposed as a hub for daytrip visitors to Wooleen Station
WOOLEEN OPENS NEW CAFE, RECEPTION AND ARTIST’S RETREAT
As Wooleen’s reputation for sustainability has grown over time, curious visitors to the Murchison area have been unable to explore the station unless they were an overnight homestead guest. Frances and David recognised that if they could open the station to day visitors safely, the opportunity to provide additional employment, access and awareness would be a positive outcome for their local community.
Together with DTM, the Wooleen team workshopped concepts for a ‘tourism hub’ that could provide services for leisure visitors and coach tour operators to turn off the main Coral Coast Highway and make a visit to the Murchison. The plan was to relocate a long disused shearing shed 7km to the entrance of the property and repurpose it as a reception hub for tourism, a cafe and artist’s retreat.
With the support of a Western Australian Government RED Grant from the Midwest Development Commission, the Wooleen team worked throughout 2023 to develop a new attraction for the Murchison. Importantly, The Pollock’s worked with the local Wajarri community to name the building ‘Milimanmanha’, meaning igniting something - to bring to light to new possibilities and new knowledge.
“For us, this building represents a deeper and more connected dive into what Wooleen can truly be: the hub of a community committed to passion, diversity, teaching, learning and kindness” says Frances.
True to their values of sustainability and community, Milimanmanha will also host a shop, providing an outlet for local creators and producers to showcase and sell their products, together with plans to work closely with the Pia Wadjarri Remote Community School in offering workplace experience to secondary students wherein they will undertake duties associated with tourism and hospitality including greeting guests for check-in/out, recommending local attractions, liaising with day visitors and offering hospitality. During 2024, it is envisaged that hospitality traineeships could be offered to local young people, creating career pathways that currently aren’t available in the Murchison.
The Wooleen story continues to be an outstanding example of the principles of Agritourism, achieving success in collaboration and engagement within, between and across levels of Government, Tourism, Agriculture and Traditional Owners. It has been a joy for DTM Tourism to work with the Wooleen team and we congratulate them whole heartedly on their success.
‘Milimanmanha’ is Wooleen’s new tourism hub, proudly named by the Wajarri community.
LIKE WHAT YOU SEE?
The Agritourism project for WA Station Stays was initiated in a collaboration between WA’s regional tourism organisations, Australia’s Golden Outback and Australia’s Coral Coast and supported by Tourism WA. DTM Tourism’s PRIME(c) Mentoring Program was selected as the preferred Capability Building program to support tourism experience development.
DTM Tourism work with businesses, regions and industry stakeholders across Australia to create inspired visitor experiences and sustainable tourism destinations.