Mr Ravens said the Estate had seen an overwhelming increase in tourism numbers over the summer. 

“We were under pressure to upgrade the site facilities to accommodate a wave of visitors and also put in some new warehousing and despatch facilities.

“Demand for our wholesale business is just growing faster than it can cope.”

He said the Estate matched the federal government 2 for 1 with the investment, with the government putting forward $475,000 for the upgrade.

The investment is part of a $24 million federal and state government jobs package, which will provide funding to 56 local projects across the state. 

The Estate showcases lavender through agricultural production, manufacturing and food.  

He said the project had started with ground breaking three weeks ago, and foundations were under way for the warehouse expansion.

“We met with council today (on Friday) for the tourism expansion facility and we put plans into them around October and for construction to commence around April of next year,” he said.

“We’re too late now – we couldn’t start construction of a major tourism facility expansion whilst tourists are flocking in it would be just too hard to manage.” 

He said the organisation had built a new warehouse two years ago which was already at capacity.

Mr Evans said he continued to receive a high amount of visitors despite the tourism season ending. 

Dorset Mayor Greg Howard welcomed the funding.

“With Bridestowe they've got 65,000 visitors a year, if they can improve visitor numbers then the rest of the North-East can tap into that,” he said. 

Cr Howard said the North-East had possibly experienced its best summer ever, which he attributed to the success of Bridestowe and last year’s introduction of $2.4 million mountain bike trails in the Derby. 

He said since the Derby trails were introduced, 35 new accomodation businesses had been opened.