KING Island is on the cusp of major change with millions of dollars worth of development taking shape on the island.
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New Mayor Duncan McFie, who is also a teacher at King Island District High School and founder of King Island Cloud Juice, is ready for that change and believes the island is in a good position to move forward.
Six of the nine King Island councillors are new and a new general manager has also been appointed.
‘‘We have this clean air to hit reset, so I want to engage the whole community in what we want for the island,’’ Cr McFie said.
‘‘We’ve had some bad stuff happen in the past.
‘‘We lost the abattoir (in September 2012) that sucked out $4 million just in freight funds.
‘‘But with stuff on the horizon, things are going to change.’’
The biggest development on the island is of three new golf courses.
Construction at Cape Wickham and Ocean Dunes has already started, with Cape Wickham – at the top of the island – expecting to start preview rounds on March 1.
Golfing legend Greg Norman is involved in the development of a third course, with its development application expected to be submitted soon.
A developer is also looking at building a five-star resort on the island on the back of the golf course developments.
Cr McFie said the golfing developments would transform the island, well known for its beef and cheese.
‘‘Primary industry is the backbone of the island but to grow the place, we need to look at secondary and tertiary industries and this is that,’’ he said.
King Island’s population was 2000 when Cr McFie arrived in 1992. It now sits around 1500.
Cr McFie said it was important to get people to the island.
‘‘If everything happens that people have been talking to me about in the past couple of weeks, there would be close to, if not more than, $100 million worth of development and to us that is phenomenal,’’ he said.
He said the council just had to be careful not to go ‘‘bonkers’’.
‘‘We’ll have to think about how we manage that (increased tourism) and I don’t have the answers for that yet, which is why we need to get the community engaged.’’
Cr McFie said the thing he was most looking forward to about being mayor was ‘‘being able to be held to account for our actions’’.
‘‘Every councillor and I have a responsibility to the community to come back in four years and say ‘this is what we’ve done and this is what we want to keep doing’,’’ he said. ‘‘It’s very exciting.’’