Welcome everyone to the "Experience Gidgegannup" web page. Experience Gidgegannup aims to increase the viability of rural and tourism businesses in Gidgegannup through providing growth and value-adding opportunities.

As with any community driven project, there are key people which make everything happen. They dedicate many hours of their own time to benefit the community.

Together we hope to boost tourism in our area for the benefit of everyone, business owners, locals and visitors. We have had wonderful support from the City of Swan and as a result Gidgegannup is already starting to be recognized as a great place to visit.

We have several events planned for the coming twelve months and are always looking for fresh and new ideas for others.

If you think that you may be interested in becoming part of the group please don't hesitate to talk with either Tania Boyland (0417 928 580) or Sally Block (9574 7065). We are not a group that holds endless meetings and achieves nothing. We meet on average about once every three weeks for a couple of hours, not a big commitment and it's very rewarding.

Our meetings are held every second month, starting in February, on the last Thursday of the month. For details call Tania Boyland (0417 928 580) or Sally Block (9574 7065).

Chairperson	Tania Boyland	0417 928 580
Secretary	Penny Morgan	9574 7211
Treasurer	Allan Lockwood
Vice Chairperson	Bill Blake
Food Group Rep.	Alex Halsey
Accommodation Rep.	Cora Brown
Minutes Secretary/Liaison	Sally Block	9574 7065
Committee	Isabel McHutchison  Cathy Wyber
Postal Address	PO Box 66, Gidgegannup WA 6083
Email	experiencegidge@gidgegannup.info

Experience Gidgegannup was initiated by the City of Swan in 2004. At this stage the project was known as "Eat the View" and was funded by a grant from the Outer Metropolitan Community Fund. .

An initial seminar "Future of Rural Produce and Tourism Learning & Opportunities" was held on the 14th May 2005. The seminar was attended by a handful of interested locals keen to find out more about the project. The seminar was also attended by two guest speakers, Ric McDonald, project Officer for the Heartland Country Project and Maureen Dorba owner of the Loose Leaf Lettuce Company and winner of the 2005 Rural Woman of the Year Award. As a result of this seminar a Community Reference group was established consisting of 8 community and 2 City of Swan Representatives. Presently our local representatives are Sally Block, Anne Kumar, Janet Weir, Jeanette Ashworth, Mark Jessop, Sue and Alan Barker, Penny Morgan, Peter Wyber and Tania Boyland.

Several meetings were held after this one to try to boost some community interest, but this was not very successful. Together the Community Reference group pushed along with a few initial goals, the first being to develop a logo and slogan and the second being to put together a display and stall for the local Gidgegannup show.

It became apparent after the first few meetings that "Eat the View" was not really an appropriate name for what we were hoping to achieve. A consultant was enlisted to work with us to develop the logo and slogan. We held a brainstorming session to give the consultant a good idea of the physical characteristics of o ur area and our thoughts in general, on life in Gidgegannup. After consultation with the community the "Experience Gidgegannup in the hills" slogan and logo were developed to replace "Eat the View".

A marquee was booked at the 2005 Gidge Show and we then had the task of filling it! We all volunteered our time to undertake various tasks to make it happen, and happen it did. Many hours were spent on the phone, on the computer and even visiting people. Out of the woodwork came all sorts.


Local honey, olive oils, goats cheese, macadamias, Chinese dates and wines, all offered for free tastings. Information on walk trails, bridle trails, wildflower drives, picnic spots and other areas of interest. Crafts people, local businesses and even the local historian all armed with information and goods to try to entice people to come back to our wonderful area. The marquee was jammed packed with produce, products and information that most us didn't even know existed in our area. There was a great response from visitors and also locals and we carried on the tradition a few weeks later at the Pearce Air Base Show.

Late 2005 we saw the launch of the "Gidgegannup Wildflower Drive Brochure" a nd also the "Natural Beauty of Swan Brochure" which includes Gidge's natural assets, such as Berry Reserve and Noble Falls. The Swan Valley Tourism Brochure which has 50,000 copies distributed around Perth, includes a page which is dedicated to Gidgegannup.

In early February 2006 we achieved one of our major goals the mail out of our inaugural Calendar of Events and also the survey which we hope will open many doors. The City of Swan's Food and Wine Database has been completely remodeled to allow for the inclusion of rural activities which may exist in Gidgegannup and other areas within Swan.
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