CREATING a distinctive sense of arrival was what the King Valley Prosecco Road Public Art Project was designed to deliver, but "Bubbles in the landscape" has left some tourism operators feeling flat.
The King Valley Tourism Association (KVTA) said in early December it understood the gateway entrance artwork would clearly identify people were at the gateway to the King Valley, but it said the sculpture's abstract style - and a lack of actual signage - meant people who arrive in Oxley literally don't know where to turn to find King Valley's many attractions.
The Rural City of Wangaratta commissioned the $350,000 sculpture by Alexander Knox, funded from $4M received from the Victorian Government for the King Valley Prosecco Road Revitalisation Project.
Wines of the King Valley said it was also expecting the kind of gateway signage promised under the Activating King Valley Prosecco Road masterplan, developed by Urban Enterprise for Tourism North East in partnership with the Rural City of Wangaratta, and endorsed by council.
Wines of the King Valley president Dean Cleave-Smith said under the plan, there was an identified need for significant artistic gateway signage, as is found in other wine regions like the Barossa Valley.
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He said the signage originally planned for the Oxley roundabout (and a second sign on the Mansfield-Whitfield Road in Whitfield) should have given visitors a distinctive sense of arrival.
"From our perspective, the artist installation at Oxley addresses the artistic side, but doesn't deliver as far as gateway signage goes," he said.
"Wines of the King Valley had no engagement or involvement in the selection process - the installation was commissioned and designed purely by council, without broader engagement that I'm aware of, and certainly not with Wines of the King Valley or its members.
"The community concerns, and those of the King Valley Tourism Association, is that we are still lacking significant gateway signage announcing arrival and top-level dispersal for guiding people throughout the King Valley.
"The Activating King Valley masterplan document features mock ups of what it could have looked like, and it was undisputedly about the King Valley primarily - not an art installation with a sign - and that was our collective expectation of what would be delivered."
Mr Cleave-Smith said formal wayfinding signage (or the brown "fingerboard" tourism signs which direct people to a winery) are the responsibility of the winery, and Wines of the King Valley and have typically taken on a coordinating role with the road authority.
He said once those signs are installed they fall under the road authority's responsibility and cannot be altered or interfered with, as they are considered part of the road infrastructure.
While Mr Cleave-Smith said the need for traditional wayfinding signage is diminishing as more visitors rely on digital wayfinding (in vehicle), gateway signage remained as important as ever, particularly at Oxley, where the visitor had the option of going in two different directions to find King Valley wineries.
In responding to the concerns of the KVTA, council manager of economic development, environment and compliance, Celeste Brockwell, said the Prosecco Road Public Art Project is not yet complete and it was working with Tourism North East to deliver signage for the Prosecco Road.
Tourism North East chief executive officer Bess Nolan-Cook confirmed it was working with the Rural City of Wangaratta on signage as part of the Murray to Mountain Rail Trail, which incorporated signage relating to the Prosecco Road project, but declined to comment on the Oxley public artwork project or what signage was being proposed.
