New local currency on the Sunshine Coast

If you're holidaying on the Sunshine Coast in Australia's Queensland you may be surprised to know that there is a new local currency. The beautiful, old farming municipality of the Blackhall Range has caught the attention of the worldwide media after the creation of their own local currency to be spent while visitors stay in a Sunshine Coast accommodation.

In order to encourage visitors as well as locals to spend money locally, they created the Baroon Dollar! This dollar, unlike a lot of other currencies, is named after a local lake that is close to Maleny, and of course it is named the Baroon Pocket Dam!

It is not actual currency per se, but rather a voucher system that will be sold at independent local businesses in order to encourage visitors staying in a Sunshine Coast accommodation, as well as locals to buy goods locally.

The instigators of the Baroon Dollar have said that they have managed to create their own stimulus package but that, unlike various nations, their aim is to stimulate more or less a think-local-first programme, which is truly a remarkable accomplishment.

The way that it works is that local establishments such as grocery stores and restaurants, etc. throughout three different small towns on the Sunshine Coast have signed an agreement to accept the Baroon currency. So far it’s been well received, and appears to be successfully encouraging visitors to spend Baroon currency when they stay in Sunshine Coast accommodation.

The goal of this Baroon Dollar project is of course to create and maintain a proactive local economic drive, to create public interest, and also to encourage others who are suffering economically to somehow generate similar programmes that create a local economic stimulus. For example, it is hoped that farmers markets and local eateries will recapture the money spent in bringing and producing local food to the area. By capturing the imagination  of tourists who stay in Sunshine Coast accommodation, the Blackhall Range communities can be proud of devising a plan that injects some cash into their local economy. All responses have been overwhelmingly positive.

In effect, this is networking at its finest, as it serves as a referral network from one local establishment to the other; it encourages those who stay in a Sunshine Coast accommodation to recognize all the fine eating establishments nearby who serve the local farmers’ products in their restaurants. Those same visitors are also encouraged to frequent the small farmers markets that feature local food as well!