Published on Wednesday, 30 July 2025 at 5:00:00 PM
The Shire of Denmark is set to upgrade our community services with a decision to relocate the Denmark Public Library to the current Visitor Centre site.
With the current service agreement for visitor servicing set to expire in June 2026, Council has endorsed a plan to redirect resources toward this more sustainable and impactful initiative, and to discontinue face-to-face tourism servicing.
The Visitor Centre’s usage has declined sharply, with door counts dropping by 38% between 2015 and 2019, and representing less than 5% of total tourism engagement between 2021 and 2023.
By contrast, overnight visitor numbers have surged post-COVID, driven by tourism trends moving to online-only models, prompting the Shire to reconsider its investment in traditional visitor servicing and repurpose the Visitor Centre to relocate and upgrade the Denmark Public Library.
Shire of Denmark President, Kingsley Gibson, says the decline of traditional face-to-face tourism services offers a timely opportunity.
“Our recent Community Scorecard Survey has highlighted our much-loved Library's excellent service, but respondents also indicated a need for a more modern library space in our Shire that continues to provide for our growing population,” Cr Gibson said.
“Relocating our Library to the Visitor’s Centre, and developing a more modern library service in a modern and more accessible public space, opens up so many possibilities for our growing community,”
The layout of the Visitor Centre’s building and prominent location are well-suited to library functions, and the new facility plans to offer our community increased digital access, flexible learning areas, lifelong learning programs and a modernised library catalogue.
The relocation will also provide potential new opportunities for the current library building on Strickland Street, with short-term leases for commercial or community use to be considered.
Although recognising the importance of tourism, particularly for some business owners, the Shire acknowledges its role is shifting toward managing tourism impacts—such as infrastructure and waste—rather than direct servicing.
“With this opportunity to take an underutilised space and repurpose it for those living in our community, we’re ensuring our Library remains a much-loved service that is more than meeting its potential.”
The Shire will investigate continued collaboration with the Denmark Chamber of Commerce to provide visitors’ information.
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