Published on Monday, 8 January 2024 at 3:33:31 PM
The Shire of West Arthur is a member of the Astrotourism Towns Network, having joined in 2019. The Astrotourism Towns Project is creating a stargazing trail through WA’s regional communities and promoting the State’s world-class dark night sky asset. Dark sky locations for stargazing are listed on the Astrotourism Towns Map which enables promotion and easy access for “Astrotourists”.
The project aims to:
- increase overnight visitation;
- grow jobs;
- boost the regional tourism economy;
- expand regional business capacity;
- advance Aboriginal Astronomy; and
- bring more astronomy science to regional students.
Alongside the creation of the stargazing trail, regional communities and Astrotourism WA are also working together to facilitate the reduction of light pollution and protect WA’s world-class dark night sky asset for decades to come. This is an important part of the Astrotourism Towns Project. WA is blessed with low levels of light pollution in regional areas and it’s crucial that this is maintained to protect the dark night sky asset as it becomes a valuable mix of the Tourism Industry.
Each year, Astrotourism WA provides a report which details all that towns in the network have been working on to develop dark sky tourism for our communities and includes:
- recent initiatives;
- promotion;
- website/social media data;
- light pollution advocacy; and
- dark sky tourism product and destination development.
There is now greater general understanding that our dark night sky is a valuable asset for tourism in WA. In a world where light pollution is increasingly blocking the view of the stars, we are taking the big steps to protect the night sky so that visitors from around the world have an ideal destination for dark sky tourism experiences in the decades ahead.
You can read the 2023 report here.
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