THE soon-to-be deserted Glossop High School middle campus should be the site for the proposed Riverland Wine and Food Centre, a former local school principal says.
The idea to establish a wine and food centre was first aired by Member for Chaffey Tim Whetstone in 2019 and a business case study to establish a $19 million, six-star facility subsequently followed – without any State Government funding commitment.
Possible locations for the centre have been a local talking point since, and retired ex-local principal James Young says the closure of Glossop High School’s middle campus in Glossop at the end of 2021 presents an opportunity for the Riverland community.
“The old Glossop High School would make an ideal place for (the Riverland Wine Centre),” Mr Young said in a statement presented to Berri Barmera Council and the Murray Pioneer.
“Not only could it become a wine centre, it could become a one-stop shop for information and goods in the Riverland.”
From 2022 onwards, Glossop High School’s entire student cohort will join year 11 and 12 students in Berri at the renamed Berri Regional Secondary College, leaving the Glossop facility vacant.
Mr Young’s submission contains a long list of ideas about how the existing Glossop facilities could be converted into useful features of a “one-stop-shop” Riverland tourism hub, including suggestions for the woodwork room, art room, home economics room, administration area, agriculture plot and recreation hall.
“This wine centre could be contained into one building, or across a number of buildings,” he said.
Mr Young, of Kingston-On-Murray, said the idea could only work if the Riverland towns discarded their parochialism and started to “co-operate together”.
“The Berri Barmera Council would (also) have to get passed the cost now and look to the future for their return,” he said.
Mr Young said Broken Hill had coped with a downturn in mining by diversifying its economic base, while the Barossa Valley had likewise developed additional tourism attractions.
Agribusiness consultancy Ernst and Young was engaged by the Liberal State Government to fulfil an election commitment to undertake a feasibility study into a Riverland wine and food attraction.
The report outlines some potential locations for the centre, including Barmera, Berri, Glossop, Loxton and Renmark.
Note: An edited version of James Young’s proposal to Berri Barmera Council appears on page 6 of today’s Murray Pioneer.