Can the ex-industrial city of Geelong have an art and tourist revival?

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The Financial Review in Feb 2014 wrote that Ford was was closing its Geelong manufacturing works, ending 300 jobs by June and the remaining 210 by 2016. Alcoa reported that its ageing aluminium smelter at Point Henry would close in August, along with a rolling mill, at a cost of 800 jobs. Shell’s refining and retailing business was sold in February to Swiss owners. None of these operations were globally competitive. The year before Qantas had already axed 300 maintenance jobs at the nearby Avalon Airport. Target had sacked 260 from its Geelong head office. For a town that had only 200,000 citizens, this was a disaster. Manuf­act­uring, the sector that accounted for 36% of Geelong’s workforce in 1971, was down to 10% 40 years later and dropping rapidly.

The narrative of doom and gloom, job losses and the decline of the manufacturing industry, looms large just now. And so it should do. People who have worked loyally for Ford, Holden, Toyota and Qantas for decades will find themselves redundant within two years. Even more people who work in industries supplying Ford, Holden, Toyota and Qantas with parts and services will close down soon after. Big cities like Adelaide and Melbourne will be hard hit, but smaller rural cities will be devastated.

The carousel is in a glass pavilion, 

with 4 athletic bollards 
looking out to Corio Bay.

Waterfront Trains in Eastern Beach.
Ferris Wheel on the sand.

Increased tourism had already become Geelong’s goal! Jan Mitchell presented the concept for the Waterfront Bollard Walk to the town hall as far back as 1994. Her 103 bollards, carved in reclaimed timber pier pylons, were eventually placed in 48 different sites along the shore line. Each of the 48 groups of bollards is distinctive, all of them caricatures of famous local people or famous local professions. The Bollard Walk is quite long but Colin Mockett the Tour Guide was an excellent source of information about the city's history, from boom to bust to hopefully boom again.

The tourist can also experience other attractions along the foreshore, including the restored Carousel at Cunningham Pier. The waterfront carousel sits in a glass pavilion and overlooks the harbour with spectacular views out to Corio Bay. It was originally an Armitage Herschell Carousel of New York that was created in 1892 to tell the story of King Arthur and Camelot; later it was used by families in the gold town of Castlemaine. Of the 36 horses and two chariots, 24 are actually original; the remaining twelve horses were built using many of the original processes and materials from the USA. The Waterfront Train tours run on a 20 minutes circuit from the Carousel to Eastern beach pools, much to the children's delight.

Cunningham Pier was a key part of the City port, from the mid 1850s when it opened to the late 1970s when it closed. With the modernisation of Geelong’s ports, Cunningham Pier was no longer used for cargo and looked decrepit. More recently the goods shed were turned into a huge nightclub, and restaurants, sailing clubs and entertainment facilities moved in. Tourism boomed, at least in summer.

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Now read Debbie Cuthbertson’s article on 2nd March 2014, “Geelong, Shepparton: Can art bring new life to our ravaged regional cities”, which appeared in The Age after the Ford closures. While major employers such as Ford, Alcoa and Qantas shed many hundreds of employees in Geelong and will not survive, nascent creative industries are popping up and major arts and cultural projects will begin. These green shoots are signs of a possible culture-led economic regeneration that has proven itself interstate and overseas.

Work has begun on one of Geelong's major initiatives, a $45 million library and heritage centre set to open in 2015, funded with money from the City of Greater Geelong and state and federal governments. The Figment participatory community arts festival, shared between Geelong and the USA city of Boston, returned for a second year in 2014. In May, the council hosted Mouth to Mountain, an 80 k extreme art walk from the You Yangs to the Barwon River mouth.

Geelong Performing Arts Centre, in its current location 

These projects have the potential to provide a serious economic boost, as well as an emotional salve, to communities that are doing it tough. They give Geelong a glimpse of the kind of cultural transformations that have been seen in other manufacturing cities eg Newcastle in NSW, Leeds and Cardiff in Britain.

Made In Geelong, a project inspired by the Renew Newcastle Scheme of giving vacant premises to artists, lapsed after a initial flurry of activity, ? due to resistance from landlords. More recently, one of the premises in a vintage market precinct set up in a former wool mill and glass factory in Geelong's north has been forced to close. The biggest and most long-standing cultural renewal project - the proposed $140 million redevelopment of Geelong Performing Arts Centre (GPAC) - had ready-to-go plans. Geel­ong's new mayor said he would rather see GPAC moved to the pier, alongside a national photographic gallery and a new convention centre. This would attract more tourists to the waterfront and lure visitors off the cruise ships that are docked there.

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There are already examples of industrial and non-industrial centres being re-purposed for more cultural pursuits. The former Federal Woollen Mills were built in Geelong in 1912 to service the booming wool industry. Set on land that was donated to the Commonwealth by the Geelong Harbour Trust, the mills closed in the 1970s and are now the site of an art and design precinct. The old mills also have several recycled industrial building material markets and antique markets. A Temperance Hall was built on the corner of Little Malop St and Aitchison Place in 1858. This distinctive conservative classical building used to have a Barrabool freestone facade. The hall was demolished in 1978 to enable the construction of Geelong Performing Arts Centre.

And there are examples of existing cultural institutions becoming bigger, smarter and more attractive, in order to double and treble the number of visitors who will come to Geelong. See the 2015 plans for the Geelong Art Gallery which originally opened in 1897. One example will suffice. When Andrew Lloyd Webber wanted to sell Eugene von Guerard's View of Geelong 1856, the composer made an exclusive offer to Geelong Gallery with first right of refusal. This amazing golden landscape cost $4 million, paid for by Geelong Council, the state and federal governments, community organisations and the corporate sector.

Eugene von Guerard, View of Geelong,1856

89 x 155 cm Geelong Gallery

Former Federal Woollen Mills, built in Geelong in 1912 

now part of an art, design centre and antiques market.

Is there a downside? I certainly agree that citizens in rural cities might love 80 ks extreme art walks, concerts, new art galleries and old warehouses filled with crafts and textiles. But what those citizens need mostly are good jobs that are well paid, well respected and above all permanent. Putting on international acts near the Geelong pier where cruise ships can dock is an excellent idea, but how will the locals afford to see these acts – from their unemployment cheques?

None of the new major arts and cultural projects mooted for Geelong can go ahead, without substantial funding from the state government. A conservative state government would not have wanted to pour money into dying industrial centres; after all the Conservatives ruined Qantas in the first place by privatising it back in 1992. Will anything change now that we have a progressive state government?