Chinatown gets shake-up

Imagine: families strolling through bustling markets under the stars, tourists walking along a colourful heritage trail snaking through the town, couples enjoying a late afternoon meal along the cafe strip, and locals visiting a revamped Streeter’s Jetty.

This is the vision for Chinatown by 2020, as seen through the eyes of a group of Broome business operators. Last week, the group painted this vivid picture of a lively Chinatown, a precinct which previously epitomised Broome, as part of the ongoing mission to transform it into the thriving and iconic hub it once was.

To help make the dream a reality, Broome welcomed flamboyant expert “placemaker” Gilbert Rochecouste last week to help conduct a workshop and tour around Chinatown with the Shire of Broome.

Mr Rochecouste, director of Melbourne company Village Well which works to reconnect people with places, orchestrated a handson approach to engage locals in the project.

Business operators and key stakeholders were invited to take part in the workshop to discuss what made Chinatown special and how to bring back the “wow” factor.

The workshop included a tour of Chinatown.

More than 20 small business operators went on the tour to identify “hotpots that would required immediate attention”.

Operators drew up a list of short-term and long-term solutions to envisage the “bigger picture” of the precinct.

Mr Rochecouste said it was about putting the “oomph” back into Chinatown by getting residents to work together.

“It’s important for people to work together, map out a vision and take ownership,” he said.

“You need to get to know the stories of Broome and leave a legacy.”

Mr Rochecouste described Chinatown as having “good bone structure” and needed to be transformed into a place loved by locals and tourists.

“One way to celebrate Broome’s multicultural society is to create a cultural centre and put that on the national and global map,” he said.

“You have to make Chinatown globally iconic but locally distinctive.”

Monsoonal Blues owner Julie Russell said she found the workshop was an effective way to move forward with the project and urged all Chinatown business operators to get actively involved.

“They need to ask themselves: ‘what can we do to help’,” she said.

“We want to make Chinatown the destination to go to.”

Councillor Jenny Bloom said all involved were anticipating some very innovative recommendations in the report Village Well will soon present to the Broome Shire and the working group.

“This is not going to be just another report to be filed and forgotten about,” Cr Bloom said.