Analysis of Environmental and Cultural Tourism: Old Melbourne Gaol

This report provides an executive summary of the Old Melbourne Gaol Museum, a significant heritage site in Melbourne, Australia. It analyzes the roles of stakeholders, including the National Trust of Australia, government bodies, and the local community, in preserving and promoting the site. The report examines the conservation principles applied, such as the importance of shared resources and community participation. It also applies the Market Appeal – Robusticity Matrix to assess the site's potential and identifies key issues. Furthermore, the report analyzes cultural tourist visitor statistics, marketing activities, and current sustainability concepts like solar power and water management. It concludes with recommendations for improving stakeholder management and introducing new sustainability strategies, such as banning fuel vehicles and enhancing waste management, to strengthen the relationship between tourism and cultural heritage management.

Environmental and Cultural Tourism

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
The Old Melbourne Goal is an old museum on the street of Russell, located in
Melbourne, Australia, Victoria. It is inclusive of a building (bluestone), square and it situated
in buildings of City Courtyard and the old House of City Police Watch. The site of total
extent of the new complex historically important as it includes leftovers of the original gaol
outlays and the area.
It was understood that the role of stakeholder in terms of government, NTA, etc are
very important and they all have been responsible to maintain and promote this site. Also,
there are lots of conservation principles applied in the place in order to protect the heritage
site. The tourist in the site has increased since past some time due to marketing efforts like
organizing events, social media promotions, etc.
Various sustainable actions are also taken in order to protect the place like the use of
solar power, water management, etc. further steps can be taken in order to increase it in terms
of banning of fuel vehicles, waste management, and etc. the relationship between tourism
management and cultural heritage management can also be strengthened.

TABLE OF CONTENTS
Executive Summary...................................................................................................................2
Introduction................................................................................................................................4
Analysis of ownership and stakeholders and the current stage of relationship between
heritage and tourism management at the site.........................................................................4
Conservation principles and concepts applied.......................................................................5
Your application and critical analysis of the Market Appeal – Robusticity Matrix..............6
Cultural tourist visitor analysis and marketing activities attracting these types of tourists...6
Analysis of current sustainability concepts and strategies applied at the site........................7
Recommendations to improve the management of stakeholders and appropriate changes to
existing or the introduction of new sustainability strategies..................................................7
References..................................................................................................................................9

INTRODUCTION
The Old Melbourne Gaol Museum is one of the most important heritage places in
Australia which attracts lots of tourists on the regular basis. Recently, the importance of
saving the heritage culture in Australia is increasing which has raised many concerns in order
to protect these sites. This particular report has been made on The Old Melbourne Gaol
Museum by analysing the relationship between different stakeholders, conservations
principles applied to save the place, visitor statistics, marketing activities used, and
sustainability principles applied. At, the end, proper recommendations are made in order to
increase the customer and also the sustainable tourism.
MAIN BODY
Analysis of ownership and stakeholders and the current stage of relationship between heritage
and tourism management at the site
The Old Melbourne Gaol Museum is one of the biggest historical places in Australia
which is visited by millions of tourists every year. It was once filled with the criminals,
mentally disabled people and others who committed crimes (Donohoe, 2012). However, later,
it was changed to the museum but still some artefacts of that time and also the gallows, where
the prisoners were hanged are still in place.
The building is currently owned and managed by the National Trust of Australia and
it is its biggest stakeholders. Other than that, the tourists, central government, local
communities are also its stakeholders. National Trust of Australia is a national peak body
which is committed to preserve and promote Australia’s indigenous, natural and historic
heritage. The Old Melbourne Gaol Museum is also managed by this trust only and it makes
sure that the building is continuously managed by doing construction on the regular basis,
maintaining the halls, gall ways, gardens, etc. the trust makes sure that the building is well
preserved and because of that it takes care of the proper security so that people do not come
and destroy the place. All the artefacts are well preserved by this trust in terms of their
cleaning, care, maintenance so that it can attract lots of tourists on the regular basis (Duval
and Smith, 2013)
Other than this, the trust is also responsible for the appropriate promotion of this place
so that lots of tourists can visit this place and learn about the past of Australia’s heritage.
They make sure that all the tourists not only international but also the domestic one can
understand the value of this place and visit it. The trust is doing great work in terms of

attracting the tourists, etc. However, there are various things which are still unlooked like
facilities for visitors, maintenance of the building, nearby areas, etc.
The central government of Australia is also one of its stakeholders as they are
responsible to provide the proper funds to NTA (National Trust of Australia) so that they can
protect the Old Melbourne Gaol Museum in an effective manner. The government also
selects the board of NTA and gives them the instructions to manage the heritage. The local
community as a shareholder is also very important as they also have the responsibility to
protect the local monument because it provides them with work opportunities as tourist’s
guides, local sellers, hotels, etc. They have to make sure that the tourists do not harm the
heritage and get home with lots of knowledge about the place. Tourists are also one of the
important stakeholders of the heritage as these are the people who provide income to the local
population, government, etc. These people may be local or international but are responsible to
visit these places and get knowledge about them (Bramwell and Lane, 2012)
The tourism management and cultural heritage management (CHM) often have a very
awkward relationship. The CHM is directly responsible for the provision as well for the
conservation of cultural heritage assets while the tourism management handles the role of
product development and promotion role. There is always tension between these two bodies
at The Old Melbourne Gaol Museum because the CHM argues that cultural values are being
compromised for the commercial gains while tourism management says that tourism values
are being compromised when a management attitude exists that any ‘touristification’ has a
corrupting influence. CHM says that they are trying their best to reintroduce people to their
cultural roots and are also reinvigorating people’s interest in history and culture while
tourism management argues that they are the one who promotes the place and aware people
about the places like this (Alberti and Giusti, 2012). With this relationship, it can be said that
it is important for NTA to interfere and make both the parties well aware of their roles and
increase their collaborations.
Conservation principles and concepts applied
NTA has described different conservation principles, policies and guidance which are
all been stated to preserve The Old Melbourne Gaol Museum. The first principle states that
the historic environment is a shared resource which means that the people should value this
heritage as a part of their culture and natural heritage because it reflects the knowledge,
beliefs and traditions of the diverse communities. The heritage value represents the public
interest, regardless of the ownership of NTA (Prideaux, Timothy and Chon, 2013). The use of

different laws, public policy and public investment are justified in order to protect the interest
of the public. There should be proper advice and assistance from public sources in order to
help the owners sustain he heritage.
The second principle states that everyone should be able to participate in sustaining
the environment of The Old Melbourne Gaol Museum. People can freely contribute their
knowledge in order to protect the place. Tourists should be able to learn to sustain the historic
environment of the place and experts should encourage the other to learn about the place. The
third principle states that understanding the significance of the place is very vital because it
contains the diverse culture and natural heritage values that people get associated with.
As per the fourth principle, The Old Melbourne Gaol Museum should be managed to
sustain its value. Proper actions should be taken to counter the harmful effects of natural
change or to minimise the risk of a disaster on time and in terms of severity and likelihood of
identified consequences and sustainability (Briassoulis and Van der Straaten, 2013). There
should be asperity in quality of design and execution so that it can be valued now and also in
future. As per the fifth principle, the decision about change must be reasonable, transparent
and consistent and should be done under expertise, experience judgement, etc. The last
principle states that documenting and learning from decisions is essential in order to maintain
the cumulative account of things that happened to The Old Melbourne Gaol Museum and the
ways in which the significance of place got altered.
Application and critical analysis of the Market Appeal – Robusticity Matrix
Market Appeal – Robusticity Matrix is an assessment tool to be applied in a pro-
active way in order to assess potential and determine issues that require resolution. It has two
axis namely Market Appeal and Robusticity in which Market Appeal is focused on
experiential and product values while Robusticity is focused on issues linked to physical and
cultural values.

Figure 1: Market appeal/ Robusticity matrix of Old Melbourne Gaol Museum
The Old Melbourne Gaol was raised in the phases from 1851 to 1864 via Department
of Public Works of the Victorian colony; the credit of design was given to the Chief Architect
(Henry Ginn). The eldest remaining section which was the Second Cell Block between 1851
to 1853 that served as a museum and included a large block along with 3 cell tiers ending in
the central hall in 1860 at the scaffold site.
The block of the cell is properly preserved to give a complete understanding of the
circumstances continued by the prisoners. Well, maintenance was provided to Chapel and
entrance buildings, as these were the main focus to complex buildings. They have been
changed on the inside; however, almost the work is convertible. The Old Melbourne Gaol
Museum, Entrance buildings, and courtyard area of intellectual, artistic, architectural,
technical and significant to the Victoria’ state. The site of the original gaol multifaceted and
has archaeological significance to the State of Victoria.
The building complex is significant in past for its major role in the oldest existing
gaol in Melbourne, further the Remand, Debtors and woman prisons for the city area for
much of its operational life where the prisoners were executed of original funerals of them at
the gaol, inclusive of Ned Kelly. Above description shows that Old Melbourne Gaol has high
Robusticity and medium Market appeal.

Cultural tourist visitor analysis and marketing activities attracting these types of tourists
Cultural tourism in Australia is increasing day by day and the government is also
trying their best to attract the customers with different marketing activities. There were total
of 746, 100 visitors arrival during June in Australia and out of those 9% of the total people
visited The Old Melbourne Gaol Museum which is a good number (Welch, 2013). However,
the numbers are much less as compared to the other popular sites but still the places
associated with death, ghost hoax, etc. are visited by less people (Jamal and Camargo, 2014).
There was increase of 4% in the number of tourists since last year.
In order to increase the number of visitors to The Old Melbourne Gaol Museum, the
NTA is doing lots of initiatives so that more and more people can visit this place. The NTA
organizes an annual fest in which the people are invited with different costumes and lots of
competitions are held (Welch, 2017). People from all over the world are invited in the event
via website of historical place and also via the Australian tourism website (Witcomb, 2013).
Other than this, lots of promotions are done on the social media platforms with paid
advertising so that people can learn about the place and generate the curiosity. The place is
given on rent to various film and television makers so that its visibility can be increased on
the national and international screens and people can be called with the increase in craze
(Park, 2013).
Analysis of current sustainability concepts and strategies applied at the site
There are different kinds of sustainability initiatives and strategies that are adopted by
NTA in order to bring sustainability in The Old Melbourne Gaol Museum. One of the biggest
initiatives that the organization has taken is that they have completely banned the polybags
near the site so that there is pollution. All the shops nearby have been told to use only paper
bags so that it can be recycled appropriately (Joshi, 2012). The lightings in the facility are
completely fuelled by the solar power and it has helped to reduce the energy consumption a
lot.
Water management is also encouraged by the NTA in The Old Melbourne Gaol
Museum as proper facilities are there which collects the rainwater and then it is recycled it to
provide fresh water to all the tourists. Steps are also taken in order to increase the greenery
around the museum so that the green environment can be promoted.

Recommendations to improve the management of stakeholders and appropriate changes to
existing or the introduction of new sustainability strategies
It is very important to improve the management of the stakeholders in The Old
Melbourne Gaol Museum so that everyone can work together and increase the tourism at this
place. The first thing that can be done is to improve the relations between tourism
management and cultural heritage management (Buckley, 2012). Both can work together
where tourism management can work in terms of increasing the tourism in the place and
cultural heritage can provide the knowledge so that people can learn about this place more
and more.
Other than that, efforts can be made in order to remove the hoaxes regarding ghost
and other illegal activities so that interest of tourists can be increased at The Old Melbourne
Gaol Museum (Smith, 2017). People can be told regarding the interesting stories about this
place so that curiosity in their mindset can be increased and they get instigated to visit the
palace. The local environment can also be m in terms of providing better staying and eating
facilities to the tourists. The place can also be rearranged with proper restroom facilities, food
cafeteria, and rest facilities so that people can visit (Smith, Waterton and Watson, 2012).
In terms of sustainability, the transportation can be changed and green vehicles should
be allowed near the site. People should be told to throw the waste material in the dustbin
which further can be recycled by establishing the waste management facilities (Ross, 2012).
More greenery can be increased near the place by planting the trees and maintain the garden
nearby. All the artefacts should be protected with proper care and people should not be
allowed to touch them (Cohen and Cohen, 2012).
CONCLUSION
In accordance with the present study, conclusion can be drawn that role of
stakeholders is very important as they all have been responsible for maintenance and
promotion of this site. The study shows that NTA is trying hard to apply different
conservation principles for the same and it has helped to increase the tourism. However, there
are still some measures that can be taken by the NTA like strengthening relations among each
other, apply sustainable measures, etc.

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