Potential Attractions

The Ulysses Link is a foreshore walking track at Mission Beach. Stage 1 is from the Village Green to Clump Point and the Cutten Brothers walking track. The project will include interpretative signage, highlighting historical anecdotes and places of interest as well as an environmental educative experience.

The North Queensland component of the Queensland Heritage Trails Network contains a program to implement a series of walking trails that provide linkage with other projects in the network and presents the region's cultural and natural heritage assets. One such project is the proposed Palmerston canopy walkway. Located in the Wet Tropics World Heritage Area, it will provide a unique tropical rainforest canopy experience. The canopy level walkway is an initiative of the Johnstone Shire Council, and will be constructed near Crawfords Lookout on the Palmerston Highway. It is projected to attract 150,000 visitors annually, increasing to 250,000 over 5 years.

Events

Olympic Torch Relay - On Sunday 25 June 2000, one of the Shire's most successful community events occurred when the 2000 Olympic Torch Relay ran through the Shire. A crowd of over 9000 Shire residents witnessed local triathlon hero and world champion, Brad (Croc) Beven light the replica Olympic Cauldron at Pease Park. 50 local residents carried the Torch from Mission Beach through El Arish and Mourilyan into Innisfail. A further 20 carried the Torch out of the Shire the following morning. The highlight of the event, apart from the cauldron being lit, had to be the arrival of Gertrude, a 3 year old croc from The Johnstone River Crocodile Farm who briefly interrupted proceedings to join her namesake Beven on stage to assist the ceremony.

The Innisfail Annual Show has displays of sugarcane, cattle, poultry, bananas, pawpaws, horticulture, needlework, cars and machinery, and arts and crafts. Wood chops, ring events, fireworks and sideshow alley are additional attractions. The show usually attracts about 8000 people each year.

Innisfail District Ballet & Dance Society - Annual Dance Competitions attract over 900 entries from around Queensland with styles of dance including tap, modern, classical ballet, demi character, national character, song and dance, and novelty.

The Flying Fish Point Van Park Fishing annual tournament commenced in 1999. The 2000 tournament attracted a total of 200 participants. A total of 131 fish of 8 species were caught from boats, with 11 fish of 5 species caught by beach anglers.

The Innisfail Bill Fishing Tournament has drawn attendance from all over the nation for 20 years. The tournament is a catch and release usually run in early-mid September, and targets small billfish species proliferating off the coastline.

Accommodation

The accommodation industry suffers from a shortage of room numbers and appropriate facilities to attract large numbers of tourists or to cater for Conferences. The construction of tourism facilities such as the proposed Canopy Walkway may provide the catalyst for further investment in the traditional area of motels, etc., as well as in more recent newer formats such as Bed & Breakfasts, Farmstays and Eco- Accommodation.

Retail

The Johnstone Shire is predominantly a rural Shire and Innisfail has developed over time as a rural service centre. More recently, Innisfail has become a regional focus for banks and government agencies giving added confidence to the retail sector, encouraging the development of the Central Shopping Arcade. Innisfail currently boasts three major food outlets (Coles, Woolworths, Franklins), three budget variety stores (Treasure Kingdom, Crazy Clarks, Rampage), three major white goods retailers (Retravision, Harvey Norman, Mellicks), numerous chemists, clothing/footwear stores, hairdressers, butchers, bakeries, coffee shops, cafes and other specialty stores.

In a recent survey of over 1000 shoppers, Innisfail was seen as a regional shopping centre with more than 10% of the shoppers surveyed being from out of town. Clearly, the future for the Innisfail CBD will be dependent on the introduction of strategies to attract people from within the shopping catchment (35 000) to utilise the retail facilities in Innisfail in order to reduce the "leakage" from the local economy (to Cairns in particular). In relation to opportunities within the retail sector, the survey indicated a need for additional facilities including a variety store (eg. K-Mart/Target), a Cinema and a Medical Centre.