By Cagerattler

The other night I sent some photos of the region to a friend of mine in Baltimore, Maryland. He and his wife were keen to see some Fingal Valley stuff, not the usual tourism content. After sending them some of my own photographs via email which they appreciated I decided to have a look and see if there was much video to view… and I found it. It’s called Valleys of Adventure (Fingal Valley, Tasmania ) and he loved it. So did I actually.

I decided to find out a bit more so I rang Peter Troode of Greater Esk Tourism, one of our local business owners who doesn’t take a bad photograph. He mentioned that the Break O’Day and Northern Midlands Councils were     predominantly behind the video and they enlisted Greater Esk Tourism to work with a local videographer Neville Hayes to produce the seven minute promotional film that can be seen on YouTube and websites including the Greater Esk one. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=heZIwJb0nWY. They also have several other 20-30    second snippets of attractions, things to visit and do etc. while you are here in the  Valley.

The title “Valleys of Adventure” also, as Peter informed me, was a feature of what they stand for and has been a big part of their mantra since they formed. The footage was by locals and Neville Hayes and is definitely well worth a look.   Congratulations are due to the councils, G.E.T and the makers of the promo.

I suppose the over-riding aspect of the content is that the Valley/s have a great affinity to nature and the many things we can and should do feature our natural attractions.

I recall an article several years ago when we touched on historical walks, nature walks, trout fishing, abseiling, bike  riding, climbing, camping and even canoeing. In the video pretty much all of that is featured as well as mention of four wheel driving, skiing and other things. It might be a pipe dream (but it does happen in other places) that one day there might be an adventure tourism  company that might like to try out the Fingal Valley as a place to do exactly that in a well organised, safe and   enterprising way where  towns, businesses and the  community at large will be able to showcase, benefit, protect and enhance our natural heritage for many years to come. To borrow a phrase from the State  Government – “Explore the Possibilities”, because as shown in the video they are wide and varied.

What do you think? Rod McGiveron.