Finding a balance: Heritage and tourism in Australian rural communities

Abstract

This paper discusses the interactions between history and tourism in rural townships in South Australia. Tourism may hold some promise as a partial solution to the economic problems of rural communities, and the links between community history groups and tourism are valuable, but the development of historical tourism presents challenges to the integrity of the community and its heritage. There are tensions between the need for historical enterprises such as living history exhibits and museums to attract tourists and the need for them to be places of memory and identity for community members. The discussion is based on historical and contemporary research that investigated historical and heritage tourism in rural South Australian communities, particularly those of the Murray Valley. This research indicated that tourism and history have interacted throughout Australian settlement history, but that tourism is becoming increasingly significant as a source of income for rural communities in the twenty-first century. Accompanying this development is recognition of the difficulties inherent in maintaining a balance between the community’s links to its own unique past, and the need for history and heritage tourism to be packaged in a way that is easily accessible to visitors. Most information that is produced to help guide communities in tourism development is based on quantitative evidence based on state and national aggregated statistics and is limited in its ability to predict the cultural impact of tourism on smaller and more isolated communities like the South Australian townships that have been the main focus of the research. This paper explores both positive and negative aspects of tourism development, and its effects on history and heritage preservation in these communities. It will argue that they take a very thoughtful approach to their tourism development, and will carefully assess tourism’s potential for economic growth against the impact that it may have on historical and cultural identity. It will further argue that to help them in this quest requires further investigation into the relationships between community heritage, memory and identity.