Up Woonona way Janet and Philip Williams are becoming excited about the expected boom in tours and tourism as our former baby boomers reach an age to join a group, hop aboard a comfortable coach and travel more.
Janet and Phil operate the highly successful Janet’s Royalty Room, a remarkable museum of Royalty memorabilia nestled away in Victoria Lane, which is definitely the largest of its kind in Australia.
And for a business that is only allowed to operate five days a week due to a previous Wollongong City Council edict, and not even on public holidays, (Queen’s birthday included), and which is largely ignored by Tourism Wollongong, this hive of activity keeps packing them in.
Many of their customers travel by coach down from Brisbane and up from Adelaide to enjoy a 90-minute to two-hour browse and presentation of the
10,000 pieces of memorabilia that are on show, along with the life size “dummies” of the Royal Family and the very special Princess Di room.
They also get to sit and relax with a morning or afternoon tea.
Janet says most of the coach companies that bring people their way are also preparing for the boom.
A good reason, Janet says, for them to be on the nationwide coach database. In fact, the only Wollongong visitor attraction that is on this database.
“Then, of course, there’s the wonderful word of mouth promotion we get,” she adds.
Such is the majesty of their display that a large part of it was recently a feature of Sydney’s Powerhouse Museum.
Janet’s Royalty Rooms also received an excellent airing on the national television travel program “Getaway”.
A 25-year obsession
For Janet it has been a 25-year old obsession and she still lives in hope of one day meeting the Queen or, better still, having Her Majesty drop by at Woonona.
She says people still send her items to put on show and she regularly scans e-Bay to keep updated on what’s available, particularly from England.
“You cannot afford not to stay up–to-date in any business, and this is no different,” she says.
Janet and Philip recently struck up a luncheon arrangement with the Thirroul Bowling Club which is of benefit to both ventures.
There is one thing, however, that Janet and Philip remain concerned about and that’s the fact that their visiting coaches don’t eventually find their way into Wollongong proper. One of the reasons for this appears to be a lack of suitable coach parking availability.
“Of the two busloads we had here yesterday one went on to Kiama and the other headed for Picton,” said Janet.
They are also concerned that the coach companies seem to have a general lack of knowledge about our city and what it might have to offer.
The couple have no immediate intentions of stepping back from their busy life, but they will close down from December to the end of January.
If you haven’t already made a visit you can call Janet or Philip on 4284 9935 or see what’s in store there by logging onto www.bigpond.net.au/royalty or Google Janet’s royaltyrooms.
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