Emirates Resort and Spa Wolgan Valley making slow progress

Joost Heymeijer, GM of the stunning new Emirates Wolgan Valley Resort and Spa told The Mole in a recent interview at AIME 2007 that there is light at the end of the Wolgan Valley tunnel in bringing to market of Australia’s first Emirates resort and the first one outside Dubai where the company operates the amazing Al-Maha Desert Resort.

The project is located in the Wolgan Valley of the Blue Mountains, where 3,600 acres of freehold land is being incorporated into a conservancy reserve, with the site currently farmland that borders the Gardens of Stone National Park, in an area where there are many threats to wildlife and conservation, but guest facilities will occupy less than two per cent of the total land.

Sheikh Ahmed when he launched the project in 2005 saying they would be spending $US38.8m said: “We want to take this beautiful, but sadly distressed rural farming site and turn it into a sanctuary to further showcase Australia to the world.”  

He added: “Emirates’ plan is to protect this site and enhance its environmental values, starting with the removal of invasive plants and feral fauna that has placed pressure on indigenous wildlife.”

“Working closely with environmental and government agencies, we even hope to reintroduce some threatened species to this conservancy and we want this project to gain the same recognition for Australia that we have received for Al Maha and the Dubai Desert Conservation Reserve in Dubai.”

At the time, Sheik Ahmed said that the resort was expected to have all final government approvals in place in the next few months with opening planned for 2007, but Joost was able to revel otherwise toe years or so on, telling The Mole, “We are only now able to go out to tender for the construction with the project now fully documented.”  We hope to have the tenders back by late May 2007.”

“It has been a much longer process than we ever thought with the plans on public exhibition for two months and we have been receiving comments to which we have responded and we are looking at signing a lease with the National Parks and Wildlife Services very shortly on some land and also to start negotiations with the original owners of the land the local aboriginal peoples to secure their permission to utilise the land.

Joost added, “At this stage we do not anticipate finishing the building until mid 2008 and hope to open in September 2008, significantly behind schedule.”

“So we are a year behind schedule, with the last 12 months has been more onerous than we would ever have thought, and while the Minister for Tourism in New South Wales has been great, there is no streamlined process in New South Wales for projects of this nature and nobody in Government to take us through the process to advise us and assist us.”

We have had to deal with over thirty different Government Departments or parts of departments and that has been hugely time consuming and complicated and potentially a significant deterrent to developing something like this in New South Wales.

We understand the very delicate balance between tourism and conservation and we have proved our excellent in it in Al-Maha, but when you think that we are only two and a half hours out of Sydney, yet we have been made to feel that we are at the back of Bourke”

In the bigger picture, Joost told The Mole that Emirates is planning to open 12 Al-Maha and Wolgan Valley type properties globally in the coming years.

Report by The Mole.