It’s crunch time over autumn leaves on Mount Macedon.
As the council moves in to slow down flocks of visitors taking in the season’s glorious colours, battlelines are being drawn between those who love the April pageant and those who don’t.
One local has even claimed residents are leaving the area in droves to flee unruly tourists.
But big-end-of-town interests claim the relatively recent autumn phenomena is boosting the local economy and creating jobs.
Macedon Ranges’ mayor Jennifer Anderson put the visitor influx down to the power of social media, coupled with tour operators offering special autumn packages.
Cr Anderson said the council’s recently formed Autumn Festival committee will co-ordinate garden openings at some of the Mount’s historic hill-top estates.
Autumn Leaves committee member Jamie Byron said open garden operators donated money to the community, while tourism boosted the economy and created jobs. He said the key to the festival’s success was managing parking and other public amenities.
But residents claim new measures to control traffic flow and provide rest facilities won’t be enough to stop tourists from “loving the area to death”.
Macedon Ranges Residents Association secretary Christine Pruneau said people are being ignored in favour of commercial interests, with the Mount in the midst of a tourist “invasion”. Roads became gridlocked and people parked vehicles over driveways in the final weeks of autumn last year, she said.
One resident, who asked not to be named, told
Star Weekly disputes over the impact of tourists were becoming a weekly occurrence.
“This Autumn Leaves festival committee is largely comprised of people who stand to make the most money out of this tourism,” she said.
“It should not be up to the community and ratepayers to provide toilets for them to make money.”
