$100 million five-star resort for Rockhampton?



The tourism industry has welcomed provisional approval for a $100 million five-star resort on the Capricorn Coast, east of Rockhampton in central Queensland.

The Rockhampton Council's planning committee has recommended the go-ahead for the Pearl Wellness Resort and Spa at Tanby Point, but it still has to be approved by the full council.

Mary Carroll from Capricorn Tourism and Economic Development says the resort is on the same site as a failed Balinese style resort that was started but not completed nearly 10 years ago.

"Back in the days when I was actually a councillor at Livingstone on the coast we approved a development on that site," she said.

"That particular developer went belly-up.

"Harry Nicholls from Moondaze purchased the site some years later.

"He's been working closely with a major management company to make sure that he can design the best possible modern tourism resort of its kind."

Ms Carroll says central Queensland has many well paid mine workers who want somewhere to holiday.

"These workers want to play somewhere, they need a leisure playground and at the moment because we still don't have sufficient product of a calibre that these people are looking for," she said.

"We're losing that business to other coastal destinations in Queensland [and] we're losing that business internationally, as well as interstate."

Source: ABC News