VICTORIAN CONSULAR CORPS TOUR TO GIPPSLAND REGION, VICTORIA
The Department for Foreign Affairs and Trade-State of Victoria hosted a tour for members of the Victorian Consular Corps to visit Gippsland (pronounced as Gibbs-Land) from 5th till 6th June 2014. Consul Generals that joined the tour were from Spain, Malaysia, Oman, Egypt, Sri Lanka, Malta, India, Japan, Malawi, Poland, Lithuania and Switzerland. The said Tour also saw the participation of Ambassador John Richardson (State Director of DFAT Victoria) as well as spouses of Consul Generals from Sri Lanka, Spain, Lithuania and Malta.
Gippsland, which was named in honour of the George Gipps (Governor of the colony of New South Wales, Australia, for eight years, between 1838 and 1846), extends from Melbourne’s eastern region to the New South Wales border bounded by the mountains. The said region has a population of 260,000 and a land size of 4.2 million hectares. Its economy is based on its extensive natural resources. Agriculture, power generation, paper manufacturing, water provides AUD16.67 billion in revenue which accounts for the AUD30 billion of Gippsland economic output. Gippsland also provides significant contributions to Victoria in particular and Australia as a whole. The region accounts for 23% of Australia’s milk output, 26% of Victoria’s beef production; generates 85% of Victoria’s electricity and 42% of Australia LPG.
The tour to Gippsland was indeed a great opportunity for members of the Consular Corps to learn more about that particular region in Victoria, in particular its economic base and plans for future development in the said area. The Gippsland region provided a fascinating and rich mix of agribusiness, sophisticated manufacturing, energy production and tourism i.e. from the famous Philip Island Nature Park (to learn about conservation of habitat for the little penguins and wildlife); Burra Foods (leading dairy products producer of Victoria); GippsAero (light aircraft manufacturer such as Airvan); Maryvale Mill (Australian Paper Plant which is the largest paper pulp manufacturing mill in the Southern Hemisphere); Gippsland Water Factory (The main factory that treats up to 35 million litres of domestic and industrial wastewater daily and provides about 8 million litres of high quality recycled water for use by local industry); and the Loy Yang power station(Australia’s largest single source of electricity). The tour also included a dinner with number of Gippsland parliamentarians, mayors and leading business figures.
Brief on the Tour as per each visit place:-
TOUR ON THURSDAY, 5TH JUNE 2014
PHILIP ISLAND NATURE PARK
Members of the Consular Corps arrived at the Philip Island at about 10.30 am and were well received by the Ms Nicoleta Giurgiu and her team. Philip Island Nature Park was formed in 1996 to manage over 1,805 hectares of land on Philip Island. The Nature Park, home to the world-famous Penguin Parade, cares for significant vegetation communities and populations of Little Penguins (Little Penguins are the smallest of 17 penguin species and the only species of penguin that lives permanently in Australia). As a self-funded organisation, the Nature Park uses surpluses generated from its tourism attractions to fund these conservation activities. It was also found out visitors from Malaysia makes up the top 5 foreign visitors to the Philip Island.
BURRA FOODS
We arrived at the Burra Foods at about 1.00 pm and were received by Glenn Falcke (General Manager Operations) as well as Tim Tamlin (CEO of South Gippsland Shire Council). Burra Foods is an Australian dairy processor that for over 20 years has been producing and marketing value-added dairy products to the world. Among their high quality dairy products that they export overseas are natural cheeses, fresh milk concentrates, and speciality milk powders. The briefing at the Factory ended at 3 pm.
WILD DOG WINERY
The Winery and Vineyard was established in 1982 with the name ‘’Wild Dog’’ coming from the nearby township of Warragul that is derived from the Aboriginal word ‘’Warrigal’’ meaning Dingo or Wild Dog. The Wild Dog Label wines are only made from grapes grown at the Wild Dog vineyard which produces approximately 60 tonnes annually from 11 different wine varieties. The Dinner at the Wild Dog Winery also saw the attendance of Hon Ken Smith (Former Speaker of Victoria and MP for Bass) and Mr Harry Rijs (Chairman of the Committee for Gippsland Inc). The Dinner that commenced at 6 pm ended at 10 pm and was a great way for the members of the Consular Corps to engage with business leaders and officials in the Gippsland region.
TOUR ON FRIDAY, 6TH JUNE 2014
GIPPSAERO
GipssAero is the aircraft manufacturing division of India’s Mahindra Aerospace. It designs and manufactures aircrafts that operate on a philosophy of simple, innovative solutions that suit businesses. The company has manufactured in excess of 200 aircrafts which fly in 34 countries around the world. It is well known to manufacture the GA8 Airvan. The tour to the GippsAero Factory was conducted on Friday, 6th June and we were led by Mr Keith Douglas (CEO of GippsAero Pty Ltd).
MARYVALE MILL
It is the Australian Paper Plant owned currently by Nippon Paper Industries and is the largest paper pulp manufacturing mill in the Southern Hemisphere. Members arrived at the Mill for a one hour briefing. We were also given a demonstration of the process of manufacturing the A4 photocopy papers.
GIPPSLAND WATER FACTORY
The Gippsland Water Factory received the Gold Banksia Award at the 2011 Banksia Environmental Awards in recognition of its innovation in transforming a significant regional environmental problem into a net environmental positive. We were met by David Mawer, Managing Director of the said firm and were brought on a guided tour of the treatment facilities.
LOY YANG POWER STATION
Australia General Electricity or AGL Energy owns and operates the AGL Loy Yang, which comprises the 2,210 megawatt Loy Yang power station and the adjacent Loy Yang brown coal mine. It employs about 600 people and supplies 30% of Victoria’s power requirements. The tour started at 3 pm and ended by 4.30 pm. Members were then brought by bus to tour the adjacent open cut mine that is owned and operated by AGL.
Members than left the Loy Yang Power Station and arrived in Melbourne at about 6.30 pm on Friday evening at the end of the programme of the visit to Gippsland (6 June 2014). We wish to thank DFAT-Victoria for hosting such an educational tour and indeed other than promoting Gippsland, the tour was indeed an eye-opener for some of us that normally would think that Victoria is all about shovel and digging (agricultural). It has also assisted some of us in breaking the ice with officials from Gippsland as well as DFAT-Victoria.
