The first stage of a luxury resort on the edge of a national park in Victoria that has attracted more than $8 million in funding from the state government has been greenlit.
Horsham Rural City Council approved the first stage of the Mount Zero development, which will sit on the northern edge of the Grampians National Park, about 290km west of Melbourne.
The company behind the development, Australian Wildflowers, plans 40 luxury villas, a restaurant and a cafe as part of the first stage.
There will also be a spa with a wellness facility, plunge pool, function centre and landscaped gardens.
When the entire project is completed it will offer 110 short-stay accommodation units.
The project has an estimated of $15 million cost with $8.5 million in funding coming from the Victorian government’s Regional Tourism Investment Fund. The fund was set up to help accelerate tourism recovery after the pandemic.
The first stage was initially expected to cost around $5 million but the budget was increased to raise the quality of the build, according to Australian Wildflowers managing director Jo Gardner.
“We decided to refine the plans and push to higher-end development,” Gardner said.
Once completed the resort will provide 17,520 overnight stays and bring $26.2 million to the economy annually.
Construction will begin this year on the first stage which will be open to the public in 2024.
The first stage is expected to create 29 jobs during construction and employ 55 once operational.
There will be 101 jobs created during the operations phase.
“This project will make the Grampians region even more appealing to tourists, which is a big win for local jobs,” Western Victoria member Jacinta Ermacora said.
Around 1.9 million visitors travelled to the Grampians region in 2022, spending $524 million.
Australian Wildflowers, which runs a farm at Laharum, has given the Mandala Hospital Group the nod to manage the resort.
The resort will be the first in the area catering to the luxury tourism market in the northwestern area of the Grampians National Park and one of the first greenfield developments to be developed in the region after the Black Saturday fires of 2009.
Regional resorts have experienced renewed investor interest as more people choose to travel domestically after the pandemic.
