A new hotel for the Flinders Ranges

by Leon Gettler

The Brown family in the Flinders Ranges has just been give the nod to build a new multi-million dollar hotel for the region.

The massive project will create local jobs in South Australia which has one of Australia’s highest unemployment rates.

It is also an enormous boost for the region which has been ravaged by job losses in at Leigh Creek and Port Augusta with Alinta Energy closing down the Leigh Creek coal mine and Port Augusta power stations.

The mine’s closure had a huge impact on Leigh Creek where half the people were employed by Alinta.

Construction of the Great Northern Lodge in Quorn begins this week.

The 34-room motel, which is expected to be completed next year and would employ nine full-time staff, will be located on the main street.

The Brown family has received a $400,000 regional development grant from the State Government to ensure the project gets off the ground.

Director Sally Brown said the project would create lots of jobs and was an enormous development for the town.

“It's massive for such a small town, it's just going to open up so many opportunities and make our town grow bigger," Ms Brown told the ABC.

"With the building, we are looking at using all local sub-contractors and tradespeople." 

She says the hotel could would bring more tourists to the region which would help other businesses.

"There's a market that we still don't have here in Quorn so we're hoping to tap into that," she said.

"We're looking at four-and-a-half star and enough to suit a bus for coach tours and study groups."

She said it was wonderful that the State government saw the potential and had chipped in to help.

"For them to believe in us and believe that it will work in such a small community like Quorn is amazing," Ms Brown said.

"We're a family that's doing this and we're taking a huge risk — we've had obviously a lot of issues along the way.

"But we've just had so many people behind us — the State Government, the local council, the community of Quorn.

"In small communities a lot of people, I guess, aren't really for such a big development but we've had nothing but good vibes from the town."

29^th February 2016