Gingin Shire thank you note for the planning extension from Rona Chiera at Moore River Holidays

When one of our twin girls, Isabella, was diagnosed with a severe peanut allergy at the age of eight, we wanted to give Isabella something encouraging to focus on, so we told her that if she outgrows her nut allergy, one day, we would buy a chocolate shop, with so much chocolate, you could swim in it! To be honest, with only a 20% chance of outgrowing the peanut allergy, we didn’t think we’d have to deliver on that pinkie promise that was made over seven years ago to our daughter, Isabella.

It felt like we were playing Russian roulette by sending our child to school with a peanut allergy as the Immunology team at Princess Margaret Hospital says that our child could die from something as simple as a peanut. To go from peanut butters and nuts all throughout our childhood, to now avoiding, is actually devastating and a huge commitment on change for the entire family. Isabella hesitated to go to birthday parties, sleepovers or even to play at friends or family member’s houses.  With just a trace of the peanut, the exposure could put her life in danger within seconds, because of an anaphylactic reaction to the peanut and Isabella could die.

Now that Isabella has outgrown her nut allergy, we are honouring our pledge to building the Moore River Chocolate Café on our farm. The Gingin Shire team have been fantastic to work with and they have given us an extension to our planning consent approval with the time to build the café due to the two speed tourism industry and the fact that the economy is doing it tough.

I am also very thankful to the community who have been emailing me their best chocolate & nut recipes; we have been enjoying tasting and making some of your family favourites. We cannot wait to get started in the café and start using some of your local produce in our cakes.

I thoroughly enjoy working with fresh and enticing ideas in tourism with the Small Business Development Centre in Lancelin and networking with Gingin Tourism, Chittering Tourism and Dandaragan’s Turquoise Coast Tourism. I urge anyone who is vibrant and loves working with people to look into something extra to add to their farm and enjoy the fabulous journey that the tourism industry offers.

An accidental business venture that fills a great need for our locals and tourism in the Moore River region should be fun. Fulfilling this pinkie promise is a vision that was so farfetched, a little delayed, yet it’s coming true!

https://mooreriverholidays.com.au/moore-river-chocolate/

Rona Chiera – Moore River Holidays