The newest tourist drive on the eastern seaboard, The Hunter Valley Way, was launched at Kurri Kurri business and economic centre by the projects sponsors, partners and organisers on Thursday.
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Starting at the M1 at Freeman’s Water Hole in Lake Macquarie, the route encompasses areas around Kurri Kurri-Weston, Lovedale, Branxton-Greta, Hermitage Road precinct of Pokolbin, Broke Fordwich, Bulga, Jerrys Plains, Denman and terminates at Merriwa on the Golden Highway.
The route will be marked by both electronic and conventional signage along the Hunter Expressway, will provide RV dump sites and facilities and will encourage tourism in The Hunter from RV, motoring and tourism groups.
Chief organiser of the project and president of the Kurri Kurri District Business Chamber, Rod Doherty, said he was very pleased to launch the project and hoped it would be the first step toward capitalising on the new traffic patterns through the Hunter.
“When the Expressway was nearing completion we realised that Kurri would have to develop a long term plan to make use of the changes, this became the Kurri 2030 plan and the Hunter Valley Way is the first of our main ideas we’ve checked off,” Mr Doherty said.
The drive is among the first of its kind to take advantage of the widespread advent of smartphones.
During the campaign and planning phase it existed as a Facebook page to drum up community interest, then a website, then an interactive map designed to integrate with Google Maps on mobile devices to allow real-time navigation by drivers.
Cessnock Mayor, Bob Pynsent, said the project was a work of extraordinary vision that will bring more people to the area.
“This will help businesses across the route,” Mayor Pynsent said.
“For too long valuable tourist groups like the grey nomads have been ignored and this is our chance to grab some of that market.”