In this vibrant episode of the Tourism Hub Podcast, host Despina Karatzias chats with Melissa Souter Robertson from the Shire of Collie, WA, as they discuss her experiences at the recent ART convention in Mackay. Melissa shares her enthusiasm for the event, highlighting the inspiring speakers and invaluable insights gained from the agritourism conference, which has sparked her interest in implementing similar initiatives in her region.
Listeners will discover the unique features of Collie, a picturesque town located just two and a half hours south of Perth, known for its stunning bushland, converted lakes, and extensive trail networks. Melissa elaborates on the town's transformation into an official trail town, boasting over 160 kilometres of mountain biking, hiking, and horse riding trails, making it a haven for outdoor enthusiasts.
The conversation also delves into the importance of networking within the tourism industry, as Melissa reflects on the connections made during the convention and the wealth of knowledge shared among peers. She emphasises the value of collaboration and support among tourism professionals, encouraging listeners to embrace these opportunities for growth and innovation.
As Melissa prepares to explore the local mountain biking trails and national parks, she expresses her excitement to return to Collie with fresh ideas and insights to share with her team. This episode is a must-listen for anyone looking to enhance their tourism offerings and foster community connections.
01:00 - Introduction to Melissa Souter Robertson
03:15 - Key Takeaways from the ART Convention
06:45 - The Unique Features of Collie, WA
10:30 - Collie's Transformation into a Trail Town
15:00 - The Importance of Networking in Tourism
20:20 - Exploring Local Trails and Future Plans
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LinkedIn: Despina Karatzias
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Show hosted by Despina Karatzias and brought to you by Tourism Hub in association with Institute Of Excellence.
Stay inspired, stay connected, and remember to share your tourism journey with the world!
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
>> Despina Karatzias (00:05):
Welcome to the Tourism Hub podcast, a podcast devoted
to you and your excellence,
providing inspiration and education for the
entrepreneurs, experience makers and
excellent seekers of our industry to take
your tourism business and career to a whole new
level.
(00:30):
I promised you more
incredible humans of Australian regional tourism.
Here she is in the flesh. She applied
for the competition and ah,
submitted a video. Melissa Sauter
Robertson from the Shire
of Collie in wa. From Melbourne
to wa, we meet IRL in
(00:53):
real life. Welcome.
>> Despina Karatzias Unidentified: Thank you. Despina Karatzias: : Thank you.
Welcome to mackay. Welcome to your first art
convention.
>> Despina Karatzias Unidentified: Thank you. Despina Karatzias: : Yes.
How have you found things so far?
>> Despina Karatzias Unidentified: Thank you. Despina Karatzias: : I have loved it, loved it. It's been
amazing. Amazing. And even in
Mai Makai. Yeah. Beautiful, sunny,
tropical. I love this weather. So
yes, I'm enjoying it and the, the conference
(01:15):
itself, the speakers and the topics and
it's just been. Yeah. Amazing.
Yes, yes. And what have been some
key takeaways so far from. Because you also
came to the first day the TA Agri
tourism.
>> Despina Karatzias Unidentified: Thank you. Despina Karatzias: : Yes, I came to the agritourism conference on
Wednesday in Bakoli. There's probably
not a lot of agritourism or agriculture,
(01:38):
but for me it was a good opportunity to see what other regions are
doing in aqua tourism. And then if
opportunity comes up in our region then at least I've
got some knowledge now behind that. Yes,
essentially, some businesses could look
into and how it works and I've met some great people in
agritourism as well. So yes, I could lean on them
if I need to put some feelings out.
(02:01):
Brilliant.
Tell us about college of where you are like
in, you know, in relation to Perth and how far
and about the unique features and why we
should consider visiting colleagues.
>> Despina Karatzias Unidentified: Thank you. Despina Karatzias: : Beautiful.
Yeah.
>> Despina Karatzias Unidentified: Thank you. Despina Karatzias: : So Collie is two, two and a half hours
south of Perth, about 30 minutes inland from
the city of Bunbury And
(02:23):
Kohli is
70% bushland or forest.
Yeah, Koli is a coal mining
town. we have some beautiful lakes
that were back in the day open cut
mine and have now been converted
into lake. So one of the recent lakes, Lake
Kapuari, which is a beautiful like you can go
(02:44):
water skiing and swimming and paddle boarding and
kayaking and you've got picnic use areas
and campgrounds and it's a beautiful place to
just go for the weekend and relax.
Folly is also a now an official
trail town. Okay, so we
have, the number's probably gone
(03:04):
up, because they officially launched some
new trails I believe on Tuesday. I couldn't be there
but we have over 160 kilometres
of mountain biking trails, hiking
trails, rail trails.
We Also have a paddle trail, horse riding trails,
four driving trails. We've
(03:25):
got a lot of trails. We've got. Majority of
them are mountain biking trails and hiking trails. But
we. We've got, you know, some great landscapes
and great areas to do. Lots of other
different, trail experience.
So you would have taken a lot of inspiration from the mountain biking,
the branding and the journey that the town, you know,
Makai has gone through. Yeah. With their
(03:47):
mountain bike trail.
>> Despina Karatzias Unidentified: Thank you. Despina Karatzias: : I didn't realise there's a few
similarities between Makai and colleague being they've
developed their own trail network now and they're. They're coal
mining as well. And. Yeah, it
was really. It was really interesting to learn about Makai's journey
and how they, you know, develop the concept
of having trails and then putting
(04:08):
that. Going through that journey
and bringing in the branding and. And that
early on in the piece, was really great to listen
to. I haven't. I, wasn't part of
that journey for Colley. That was all done before I
started. but it was really. It was really great listening
to Mackay's journey on how they've done it and.
Yeah, hopefully go cheque them out.
(04:31):
Yeah. Ah, you're picking up your pack today.
I love that, that you're extending your stay, like many are. and that's
another great thing about this convention.
>> Despina Karatzias Unidentified: Thank you. Despina Karatzias: : M. It just gets you to a.
Destination that you would normally probably
get to. You know, everybody's
busy and doing things and here we are in Mackay and
they're going, I must come back or extend. Yeah. So, I'm glad I did
(04:52):
by a little bit as well.
So you saw the opportunity to
submit, to have, the golden ticket to the
convention prior to that, that you knew
that the convention was here. What would you say to
anyone that's listening or watching? Because we're going to hear soon
the announcement of, where the convention is in
2025 for next year.
(05:13):
What would you say to anybody else that either hasn't
been at all or hasn't been for a while?
What are they missing out on, do you feel? As a first
timer.
>> Despina Karatzias Unidentified: Thank you. Despina Karatzias: : As a first timer, for me, I've really enjoyed
it in that it gives a, gives
me a broader perspective of the tourism
industry in wa. We have a WA Tourism conference,
which is a great conference.
(05:34):
Yes.
>> Despina Karatzias Unidentified: Thank you. Despina Karatzias: : But this. I feel the, Australian regional conference
is different because you
get to hear from more people
in other regions in Australia and I think that sort of.
That gives a broader perspective
of their challenges or their issues or their
wins. And what they're doing and what's working and what's
(05:55):
not right. For
me, that's been really great because
in WA we've got just even coming to mackay
listening about their mountain biking trails and we've got mountain biking
trails. So it was, it's, it's
great to sort of see what other people are doing and how they're doing
it and it's been
really fantastic.
(06:16):
And you've got another Ghostbuster now. You know, Mark
Colson was talking about who you're going to call and that's the
wonderful thing about this industry that no,
if someone has walked the path before you and
making those networks that you can call
on the team here, everybody so willing to
help just say like, you know, how did
you tackle the camp? You know, what did you do to
(06:39):
tackle the campaign or whatever that might
be. You've got a Ghostbuster of who
you could call not just in crisis but just
in talking shop, you know,
exchanging ideas.
>> Despina Karatzias Unidentified: Thank you. Despina Karatzias: : Yes. In general. And I loved that thing.
I love that because
even for myself.
>> Despina Karatzias Unidentified: Thank you. Despina Karatzias: : Now I've met so many people in the
(07:01):
last two days that or putting faces to names and
that call out or that phone tree I
think as Mark also said as, as well.
So being able to put a call out and just
ask a question or you know,
we're thinking of doing this. I know you've done it. What
were your thoughts behind how did it work? You know,
(07:22):
that connection and being able to talk to someone who's been in the
same boat is very valuable,
very valuable.
And I love, I've just loved how much you've
embraced it that from when we spoke and like,
oh, you know, I'm not going to know anyone that every
time I have to introduce you
then.
(07:42):
>> Despina Karatzias Unidentified: Thank you. Despina Karatzias: : Oh, hi, you know, hi.
You know you're seeing, you know, the team like Brooke is a
tourism M collective or Linda, you know who
we're yet Linda Tillman will be coming on as well. I
love that you're never alone in an environment
like this and you've really.
>> Despina Karatzias Unidentified: Thank you. Despina Karatzias: : Yeah.
It's been wonderful to see you just. Yeah. Sees every
minute, every break. It's, it's, it's so great.
(08:04):
And that's what it's about too, isn't it? The
connections of that like mindedness of these
regional wonderful humans of
tourism now. So what are you
going to do, what are you going to do when you pick up your car over the weekend?
>> Despina Karatzias Unidentified: Thank you. Despina Karatzias: : Oh yes. So I'm going to head out
to the mountain biking trails
now. I'VE forgotten the name. That's Finch. Finchatton.
(08:27):
Yes. Yes.
>> Despina Karatzias Unidentified: Thank you. Despina Karatzias: : and go have a look at them and go out to the
national park out there with waterfalls and water.
So I thought I'd go cheque out that. And then
apparently in Broken river, you can go see Platypus.
So I want to go see.
I'm going to go explore out. yes. In the rainforest.
Oh, so good.
(08:47):
>> Despina Karatzias Unidentified: Thank you. Despina Karatzias: : Yeah.
You'll be having a lot to take back with you.
>> Despina Karatzias Unidentified: Thank you. Despina Karatzias: : Yeah.
so outside of.
So what in terms of taking back with you
knowledge or think, you know, things to take
action on, what is. What are some key
insights or highlights that you're keen to like once
you settle and debrief? When you're back in the
office, what are some of the things that
(09:09):
you'll take back to the team at Polly?
>> Despina Karatzias Unidentified: Thank you. Despina Karatzias: : That's a good question. I feel at the moment
it's probably been. It's been one and a half
days and still just today of a lot of information.
Yes.
>> Despina Karatzias Unidentified: Thank you. Despina Karatzias: : And I've taken lots of notes. So I will
sit down and go through my notes and
decompress and then work out
what I can.
(09:30):
That's a good plan. I like that. Decompress. Yeah.
>> Despina Karatzias Unidentified: Thank you. Despina Karatzias: : There's a lot of information and it's, you know, go, go, go.
Yes.
>> Despina Karatzias Unidentified: Thank you. Despina Karatzias: : so I. I probably don't have the
right answer at the moment, but I will. Yeah.
Yeah. There is a lot. There has been a lot of
content, a lot to ingest and, yeah, I think that's
a good plan. Decompress.
(09:50):
>> Despina Karatzias Unidentified: Thank you. Despina Karatzias: : Yeah.
I'm the same. I've got. My phone is full
of notes that I have to do the same
thing. well, thank you for saying yes
to our, ah, little competition. Thank
you for being here, making the journey over to Nai.
You've added so much great value yourself
by being here and, hope to see you again next
(10:10):
year and soon we'll find out where that's going to be. Oh, I'm excited
to hear what you're going to be saying.
>> Despina Karatzias Unidentified: Thank you. Despina Karatzias: : Thank you so much.
Oh, my pleasure.
>> Despina Karatzias Unidentified: Thank you. Despina Karatzias: : All, right, thank you.
Thanks, everyone. See you back soon.
>> Despina Karatzias Unidentified: Thank you. Despina Karatzias: : Relax.
Welcome to the Tourism Hub podcast, a podcast devoted
to you and your excellence,
providing inspiration and education for the
entrepreneurs, experience makers and
excellent seekers of our industry to take
your tourism business and career to a whole new
level.
(00:30):
I promised you more
incredible humans of Australian regional tourism.
Here she is in the flesh. She applied
for the competition and ah,
submitted a video. Melissa Sauter
Robertson from the Shire
of Collie in wa. From Melbourne
to wa, we meet IRL in
(00:53):
real life. Welcome.
>> Despina Karatzias Unidentified: Thank you. Despina Karatzias: : Thank you.
Welcome to mackay. Welcome to your first art
convention.
>> Despina Karatzias Unidentified: Thank you. Despina Karatzias: : Yes.
How have you found things so far?
>> Despina Karatzias Unidentified: Thank you. Despina Karatzias: : I have loved it, loved it. It's been
amazing. Amazing. And even in
Mai Makai. Yeah. Beautiful, sunny,
tropical. I love this weather. So
yes, I'm enjoying it and the, the conference
(01:15):
itself, the speakers and the topics and
it's just been. Yeah. Amazing.
Yes, yes. And what have been some
key takeaways so far from. Because you also
came to the first day the TA Agri
tourism.
>> Despina Karatzias Unidentified: Thank you. Despina Karatzias: : Yes, I came to the agritourism conference on
Wednesday in Bakoli. There's probably
not a lot of agritourism or agriculture,
(01:38):
but for me it was a good opportunity to see what other regions are
doing in aqua tourism. And then if
opportunity comes up in our region then at least I've
got some knowledge now behind that. Yes,
essentially, some businesses could look
into and how it works and I've met some great people in
agritourism as well. So yes, I could lean on them
if I need to put some feelings out.
(02:01):
Brilliant.
Tell us about college of where you are like
in, you know, in relation to Perth and how far
and about the unique features and why we
should consider visiting colleagues.
>> Despina Karatzias Unidentified: Thank you. Despina Karatzias: : Beautiful.
Yeah.
>> Despina Karatzias Unidentified: Thank you. Despina Karatzias: : So Collie is two, two and a half hours
south of Perth, about 30 minutes inland from
the city of Bunbury And
(02:23):
Kohli is
70% bushland or forest.
Yeah, Koli is a coal mining
town. we have some beautiful lakes
that were back in the day open cut
mine and have now been converted
into lake. So one of the recent lakes, Lake
Kapuari, which is a beautiful like you can go
(02:44):
water skiing and swimming and paddle boarding and
kayaking and you've got picnic use areas
and campgrounds and it's a beautiful place to
just go for the weekend and relax.
Folly is also a now an official
trail town. Okay, so we
have, the number's probably gone
(03:04):
up, because they officially launched some
new trails I believe on Tuesday. I couldn't be there
but we have over 160 kilometres
of mountain biking trails, hiking
trails, rail trails.
We Also have a paddle trail, horse riding trails,
four driving trails. We've
(03:25):
got a lot of trails. We've got. Majority of
them are mountain biking trails and hiking trails. But
we. We've got, you know, some great landscapes
and great areas to do. Lots of other
different, trail experience.
So you would have taken a lot of inspiration from the mountain biking,
the branding and the journey that the town, you know,
Makai has gone through. Yeah. With their
(03:47):
mountain bike trail.
>> Despina Karatzias Unidentified: Thank you. Despina Karatzias: : I didn't realise there's a few
similarities between Makai and colleague being they've
developed their own trail network now and they're. They're coal
mining as well. And. Yeah, it
was really. It was really interesting to learn about Makai's journey
and how they, you know, develop the concept
of having trails and then putting
(04:08):
that. Going through that journey
and bringing in the branding and. And that
early on in the piece, was really great to listen
to. I haven't. I, wasn't part of
that journey for Colley. That was all done before I
started. but it was really. It was really great listening
to Mackay's journey on how they've done it and.
Yeah, hopefully go cheque them out.
(04:31):
Yeah. Ah, you're picking up your pack today.
I love that, that you're extending your stay, like many are. and that's
another great thing about this convention.
>> Despina Karatzias Unidentified: Thank you. Despina Karatzias: : M. It just gets you to a.
Destination that you would normally probably
get to. You know, everybody's
busy and doing things and here we are in Mackay and
they're going, I must come back or extend. Yeah. So, I'm glad I did
(04:52):
by a little bit as well.
So you saw the opportunity to
submit, to have, the golden ticket to the
convention prior to that, that you knew
that the convention was here. What would you say to
anyone that's listening or watching? Because we're going to hear soon
the announcement of, where the convention is in
2025 for next year.
(05:13):
What would you say to anybody else that either hasn't
been at all or hasn't been for a while?
What are they missing out on, do you feel? As a first
timer.
>> Despina Karatzias Unidentified: Thank you. Despina Karatzias: : As a first timer, for me, I've really enjoyed
it in that it gives a, gives
me a broader perspective of the tourism
industry in wa. We have a WA Tourism conference,
which is a great conference.
(05:34):
Yes.
>> Despina Karatzias Unidentified: Thank you. Despina Karatzias: : But this. I feel the, Australian regional conference
is different because you
get to hear from more people
in other regions in Australia and I think that sort of.
That gives a broader perspective
of their challenges or their issues or their
wins. And what they're doing and what's working and what's
(05:55):
not right. For
me, that's been really great because
in WA we've got just even coming to mackay
listening about their mountain biking trails and we've got mountain biking
trails. So it was, it's, it's
great to sort of see what other people are doing and how they're doing
it and it's been
really fantastic.
(06:16):
And you've got another Ghostbuster now. You know, Mark
Colson was talking about who you're going to call and that's the
wonderful thing about this industry that no,
if someone has walked the path before you and
making those networks that you can call
on the team here, everybody so willing to
help just say like, you know, how did
you tackle the camp? You know, what did you do to
(06:39):
tackle the campaign or whatever that might
be. You've got a Ghostbuster of who
you could call not just in crisis but just
in talking shop, you know,
exchanging ideas.
>> Despina Karatzias Unidentified: Thank you. Despina Karatzias: : Yes. In general. And I loved that thing.
I love that because
even for myself.
>> Despina Karatzias Unidentified: Thank you. Despina Karatzias: : Now I've met so many people in the
(07:01):
last two days that or putting faces to names and
that call out or that phone tree I
think as Mark also said as, as well.
So being able to put a call out and just
ask a question or you know,
we're thinking of doing this. I know you've done it. What
were your thoughts behind how did it work? You know,
(07:22):
that connection and being able to talk to someone who's been in the
same boat is very valuable,
very valuable.
And I love, I've just loved how much you've
embraced it that from when we spoke and like,
oh, you know, I'm not going to know anyone that every
time I have to introduce you
then.
(07:42):
>> Despina Karatzias Unidentified: Thank you. Despina Karatzias: : Oh, hi, you know, hi.
You know you're seeing, you know, the team like Brooke is a
tourism M collective or Linda, you know who
we're yet Linda Tillman will be coming on as well. I
love that you're never alone in an environment
like this and you've really.
>> Despina Karatzias Unidentified: Thank you. Despina Karatzias: : Yeah.
It's been wonderful to see you just. Yeah. Sees every
minute, every break. It's, it's, it's so great.
(08:04):
And that's what it's about too, isn't it? The
connections of that like mindedness of these
regional wonderful humans of
tourism now. So what are you
going to do, what are you going to do when you pick up your car over the weekend?
>> Despina Karatzias Unidentified: Thank you. Despina Karatzias: : Oh yes. So I'm going to head out
to the mountain biking trails
now. I'VE forgotten the name. That's Finch. Finchatton.
(08:27):
Yes. Yes.
>> Despina Karatzias Unidentified: Thank you. Despina Karatzias: : and go have a look at them and go out to the
national park out there with waterfalls and water.
So I thought I'd go cheque out that. And then
apparently in Broken river, you can go see Platypus.
So I want to go see.
I'm going to go explore out. yes. In the rainforest.
Oh, so good.
(08:47):
>> Despina Karatzias Unidentified: Thank you. Despina Karatzias: : Yeah.
You'll be having a lot to take back with you.
>> Despina Karatzias Unidentified: Thank you. Despina Karatzias: : Yeah.
so outside of.
So what in terms of taking back with you
knowledge or think, you know, things to take
action on, what is. What are some key
insights or highlights that you're keen to like once
you settle and debrief? When you're back in the
office, what are some of the things that
(09:09):
you'll take back to the team at Polly?
>> Despina Karatzias Unidentified: Thank you. Despina Karatzias: : That's a good question. I feel at the moment
it's probably been. It's been one and a half
days and still just today of a lot of information.
Yes.
>> Despina Karatzias Unidentified: Thank you. Despina Karatzias: : And I've taken lots of notes. So I will
sit down and go through my notes and
decompress and then work out
what I can.
(09:30):
That's a good plan. I like that. Decompress. Yeah.
>> Despina Karatzias Unidentified: Thank you. Despina Karatzias: : There's a lot of information and it's, you know, go, go, go.
Yes.
>> Despina Karatzias Unidentified: Thank you. Despina Karatzias: : so I. I probably don't have the
right answer at the moment, but I will. Yeah.
Yeah. There is a lot. There has been a lot of
content, a lot to ingest and, yeah, I think that's
a good plan. Decompress.
(09:50):
>> Despina Karatzias Unidentified: Thank you. Despina Karatzias: : Yeah.
I'm the same. I've got. My phone is full
of notes that I have to do the same
thing. well, thank you for saying yes
to our, ah, little competition. Thank
you for being here, making the journey over to Nai.
You've added so much great value yourself
by being here and, hope to see you again next
(10:10):
year and soon we'll find out where that's going to be. Oh, I'm excited
to hear what you're going to be saying.
>> Despina Karatzias Unidentified: Thank you. Despina Karatzias: : Thank you so much.
Oh, my pleasure.
>> Despina Karatzias Unidentified: Thank you. Despina Karatzias: : All, right, thank you.
Thanks, everyone. See you back soon.
>> Despina Karatzias Unidentified: Thank you. Despina Karatzias: : Relax.
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