A financial contribution from three levels of government has delivered a $36.5 Rockhampton Museum of Art that opened last week.

Hailed as housing one of Australia’s best regional art collections, the new gallery is six times the size of its former home, described by Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk as “the new cultural tourism jewel in the crown for Central Queensland”.

Works from notable artists such as John Brack, Arthur Boyd, Russell Drysdale, Sidney Nolan, Jeffrey Smart and Margaret Olley will now have more space to impress visitors, Palaszczuk said, as she toured the new building with Arts Minister Leeanne Enoch, Member for Rockhampton Barry O’Rourke, Member for Keppel Brittany Lauga and Rockhampton Mayor Tony Williams.

“Now the city has a new multi-million dollar three-storey world-class venue to host these national treasures from the modernism and contemporary period and other exciting exhibitions as well,” Palasazczuk said.

“The design also puts the museum on par with some of our country’s most respected art galleries and I want to congratulate Rockhampton Regional Council for leading the project’s design and construction which powered on through Covid supporting 165 local construction jobs.”

Rockhampton’s new Museum of Art, at a cost of $36.5 million, is open to visitors.

The timing of the centre’s opening comes as international travel recovers and local tourism operators look to revive overseas visitor numbers.

They’ll certainly be hoping to at least offset the high-spending Australian holidaymakers who opted for regional Queensland attractions when borders were closed during the height of the pandemic, but are likely to return to their preferred pricier foreign destinations this year.

Against that backdrop, the opening of the new Rockhampton Museum of Art takes on a wider significance.

Palaszczuk says it will top the list of the region’s cultural tourism experiences.

But it will also add to the already abundant smorgasbord of historical and cultural attractions, some previously profiled by InQueensland, that have recently opened or are in development, such as the Top Secret World War II base in Charleville, the refurbished Stockman’s Hall of Fame at Longreach and a fully operational wool scour touted for Blackall.

All development play to the strengths of their local stories, while aiming to diversify the visitor demographic, attracting a more ‘thoughtful traveller’ from those seeking simple recreation and adventure in the state’s rural and regional heartland.

Based on that strategy, Queensland’s regions may well see more culturally significant projects with tourism potential come into the frame of publicly-funded, “investable” projects, especially with the world’s biggest sporting event headed to Brisbane in 10 years.

As Palaszczuk herself acknowledged while in Rockhampton last week:

“The Museum will drive tourists to the region not just now but for years to come which will support even more local jobs especially in the lead up to Brisbane 2032.

“All three levels of government contributed to deliver this important project for the people of Rockhampton to enjoy and tourists to love for decades to come.”

As the biggest financial contributor to the project, at $15 million, (compared to the Rockhampton Regional Council’s $13.475 million and the Federal government’s $10 million) Minister for the Arts Leeanne Enoch said the state government was recognising the important role of investing in cultural infrastructure to grow regional development.

“The arts are key to delivering our plan for economic recovery from Covid-19, each year injecting $8.5 billion into the state’s economy and supporting more than 92,000 jobs for Queenslanders,” Enoch said.

For a city possibly best known as a key service centre for the beef industry and the resources sector, Rockhampton Regional Council Mayor Tony Williams said it was time to start a new chapter in the region’s arts and cultural story.

“If art decorates space, then stories decorate time and the story of the Rockhampton Museum of Art is one that will be told for decades to come,” he said.

“The Museum of Art is more than just an art gallery. It is a new home for our community. It will be a place where children will learn about First Nations history and where adults will learn new skills in our various classes.”