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Flagstaff Hill Maritime Village has recorded its busiest winter school holidays since at least 2017, with the special Wool Weekend event playing a big part.
There were 2913 daytime visitors between June 29 and July 14 – up on the already impressive 2525 in 2023 and significantly up on pre-COVID levels of 2290 in 2019.
While the sound and light show was quieter this year compared with last year (787 vs 949) a total of 3700 day and night visitors still makes this the most popular winter school holiday period since at least 2017, and possibly longer.
Wool Weekend, part of the Warrnambool Storytelling Festival, was held on the middle weekend of the school holidays and featured traditional blade shearing, wool spinning, felting and knitting demonstrations and activities.
This was in addition to a bumper program of school holiday activities that ran over the fortnight.
“It was a busy school holidays at Flagstaff Hill, with the additional Wool Weekend really popular,” Warrnambool Mayor Cr Ben Blain said.
“People really enjoyed being able to see all of the different demonstrations and being able to speak with the shearers and the craftspeople.
“Considering it was the winter school holidays, the weather was great, and that would have encouraged more people to come and explore the village too.
“Council has adopted a new long-term vision and opportunities plan for Flagstaff Hill, so over the next decade there could be a lot of new elements at the site.
“What’s important to remember is that interactive, hands-on features will always be popular, so it was great that there was a lot to see and do over the school holidays.”
Flagstaff Hill plans to grow the event next year to include more storytelling, market stalls and professional workshops.
Flagstaff Hill has an average rating of 4.5 out of 5 stars based on over 900 reviews on TripAdvisor.
You can find out more about Flagstaff Hill at www.flagstaffhill.com.