Orange City Council wants to doll up the Botanic Gardens with extensive development that could include a convention centre and hotel.

Sydney urban and landscape design architects Oculus drew a flash masterplan the company says will redefine the future of the gardens to create a destination that can attract year-round visitation.

But do we really need any more conference centres? Conference centres are designed to attract business people and business people go to them because they’re attracted by conferences. Why they want to hold conferences is a question nobody has ever asked. A company that’s sold soap powder for 50 years calls in its sales staff from around the country to tell them they’re doing a great job selling soap powder.

Or, alternatively, they’re not selling enough soap powder. Is this good for the soap powder trade? Perhaps it is if the sales people grind enough canapés into the centre’s expensive carpet. But, good for business or not, the promotion of conferences tops the list for tourism operators in the country. If they eventually get their way you won’t be able to step outdoors unless you’re wearing a plastic badge announcing you’re a sales rep for Etaoin Shrdlu vacuum cleaners. If the nightmare is not yet a reality, it won’t be for the want of trying.

FOOTNOTE: If anyone wants to phone to argue otherwise they’ll be wasting their time. This column will be in conference.

Broken Hill over the years has taken the lead over other country centres and established itself as a movie capital with dozens of big-budget films and TV series made there.

It’s also the birthplace of one of our early stars named John Goffage, best known to movie-goers as Chips Rafferty, who appeared in lots of films including Broken Hill's first feature in 1970 called Wake in Fright that’s now been remade for Channel 10 as a TV mini-series.

Also starring Donald Pleasence, Gary Bond, Sylvia Kay and Jack Thompson and directed by Canadian Ted Kotcheff, the film is about a sensitive Pommie schoolteacher whose personality goes to pieces after he becomes involved with the so-called rough men of the outback.

But you can bet the new cast of actors in Channel 10s remake, also filmed in Broken Hill, wouldn’t have experienced the same sort of realism as those in the original movie. There’s a fair bit of drinking in Wake in Fright and the film’s cast in one scene shot in the Broken Hill RSL club downed real beer rather than coloured water and by the end of the day everyone was happily well and truly tanked. It was also 'badge show' day in Broken Hill and all the extras had to wear their union badges, which comes out clearly in the film.