An existing tourist attraction - and a tourist site looking for an exhibit seem to be failing to connect. It would be a missed opportunity if " Janet's Royalty Rooms " were snapped up by the Gold Coast - or even relocated overseas.
Many years ago Janet Williams started a hobby of collecting royal memorabilia. Her house in the northern suburbs became a Mecca for the biggest collection of royal items in the world and she started opening her doors to the public - with great success. It now attracts coach loads of tourists daily - but Janet Williams is looking to retire - and an opportunity is knocking on the door for Wollongong.
This city has a vacant site laying dormant at the Gateway Tourist centre at Bulli Tops. When this was opened the star attraction was Jumbulla - an Aboriginal discovery centre, but this failed to attract interest and it is now closed. So far, no replacement to attract tourist interest has emerged.
It would seem perfectly logical that an existing very successful tourist drawcard - looking for relocation because the owner is retiring - would be the answer to filling that unused space.
It seems that the city is not interested - and one of the reasons is the rejection of anything " Royal " by many with Republican tendencies - but they are missing the point !
The tourist trade is big on coach tours. Operators sell pre-planned holidays that take coach loads of tourists on carefully scheduled journeys. The stops for morning tea and lunch are carefully planned at selected destinations - and apart from looking at the scenery - the highlights of these tours is visits to places of interest.
Janet's Royalty Rooms in Wollongong is such a place of interest, which is already on the tour bus schedule - and now we are about to lose it because it is shutting down and being grabbed by some place else.
Sadly, this is the only place of interest that these tours bother to include here in Wollongong. If it goes, the tour buses will simply drive on past on their way to other attractions further down the coast, including Mogo Zoo and the old whaling station at Eden.
It seems that we are letting the distaste of some with Republican tendencies for anything connected with British Royalty to get in the way of a tourist opportunity. This is a world class collection of memorabilia which gets the tourists gaping and snapping pictures - and in a perfect setting like Gateway it would create an even bigger image.
It seems that Wollongong has some dull thinkers - that can't see the wood for the trees !
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