Main Beach (QLD)
Type of Location: Located near the famous Gold Coast in Queensland, Main beach is a popular tourist destination hosting beautiful beaches, restaurants and boutique shopping.
Population: 3,324 (2006 Census, Australian Bureau of Statistics).
Employment: Reflecting the high level of tourism in the Gold Coast region, the major industries of employment in Main Beach include Accommodation, hospitality and retail.
Applicant Organisation: The Main Beach Tedder Avenue Association Inc.
Synopsis: After learning about the Community Geographic Domain Name initiative from an article in a local newspaper, The Main Beach and Tedder Avenue Association applied for a website through .au Community Domains. www.mainbeach.qld.au was launched in July 2008 and has since become a great asset to the Main Beach community in Queensland.
What they say: Georgie Brown, President of the Main Beach-Tedder Avenue Association comments: “The sections of the web site that are most popular appear to be the listings- restaurants and cafes, boutiques and real estate. We also have a large number of hits from those looking for community information e.g. the markets. In one month we averaged 8000 hits on the overall site through October 2008.
“It is still early days to ascertain the benefits of the website, although it is obvious from the hits, that it is being used regularly for information. This does, of course, have an impact on the awareness of the community and the local business. As far as The Main beach and Tedder Avenue Association goes we are looking towards the site being a community notice board, a revenue raiser in order to facilitate our projects and an effective means of communicating with our members”.
Advice for Other Communities: “My advice to other communities seeking to apply for a CGDN is to utilise the organisations (.au Community Domains) facilities as soon as possible for its ease. Setting up and maintaining a community website is demanding and time consuming work unless you are really web savvy, and it is all too easy for the site to fall by the wayside” said Georgie Brown.
