COAL TOWN

Press, Volume CXII, Issue 33062, 1 November 1972, Page 2

COAL TOWN

<From Our Own Reporter)

WESTFORT, Oct. 31.

Westport may have a tourist attraction like Greymouth’s Shantytown as the result of a gift by Dominion Breweries of the large property in Upper Queen Street, run for many years as Morley’s brewery. At the opening of the $540,000 D.B. Westport motel-hotel complex last night, the company’s general manager (Mr W. S. Otto) said he envisaged that the project, under the name of Coal Town, would be controlled by a Buller tourist promotion trust including representatives of local bodies and other key oragnisations.

Because so much of the plant would remain after his group had taken over the concern, there was scope for the establishment of a model brewery, said Mr Otto.

He suggested that there should be an emphasis on history, in displays such as goldmining equipment used at Charleston and Addisons, and relics of coal mining at Denniston, including the Incline.

Eventually, there might be a replica of an old West Coast hotel. Mr Otto said that his company was very interested in the development of the Nile limestone caves near Charleston as a tourist attraction.