A view of renovated Woolsheds on Corio Bay, Geelong - the site proposed for a new GUGGENHEIM MUSEUM These buildings now house the School of Architecture for Deakin University

This idea will surely horrify the cognoscenti of the art world; the Bond Street types who
have never been to Australia and have no appreciation of the place. At best they can name Robert Hughes the Australian art critic (who lives in America anyway) and perhaps they have seen Sidney Nolan paintings do rather well at auction. However they would be naive to underestimate Australian tenacity and brilliance of vision, qualities which Mr Jarvis and Geelong's chief executive officer, Geoff Whitbread, have in great reserves.
Entrepreneurship is second nature to Australians. They have Dame Kiri de Kanawa singing opera in the middle of the desert and this September, they host the Olympic Games having fought off tough competition.
How realistic is their proposal to build a Guggenheim in Geelong? They are past the first post as the Guggenheim Foundation has invited the city to make a formal application, which means they are taking Geelong seriously. There is no other formal bid at the moment which gives Geelong a healthy head start over any other competitor.

Even to Australians Geelong is a bit of a mystery,  known mainly for its posh Grammar school the coastal city features on the internet as a top spot for fishing. It has suffered a severe economic crisis in the last decade and 
One could argue, and what of Bilbao? An ugly industrial city in the troubled Basque region
of Spain, who knew of Bilbao before the Guggenheim put it on the map by commissioning
genius Frank Gehry to build his architectural masterpiece on its grimy dockyard.
 

J.Utzon, 1957, Sydney Opera House (1959-73)

Frank Gehry, 1997, Guggenheim Museum Bilbao

Lured by shimmering images of what is undoubtedly one of the greatest buildings of the twentieth century, the world flocked to see the new museum and the investment was paid back in just a few months. The museum has completely rejuvenated the city of Bilbao.

Using this success story as precedent, Geelong are hopeful that the Guggenheim will appreciate them as a second Bilbao. If Geelong wins the bid, the Guggenheim will choose the architect. They would have to work hard to get Frank Gehry out to Australia as Bilbao made him the world's most sought after architect.

The first Guggenheim museum was created in 1940 by philanthropist Solomon R. Guggenheim and artist-advisor Hilla Rebay, it assumed temporary residence in a former automobile showroom on East 54th Street in New York and was called "The Museum of Non-Objective Painting".

The Frank Lloyd Wright designed building opened in 1959 to house the permanent collection.
The chain now includes:
 

• The Peggy Guggenheim Museum, Venice (officially given to the Foundation 1979), Palazzo Venier dei Leoni on the Grand Canal with a scullpture garden.

• The Guggenheim Soho, New York
• The Guggenheim Berlin
• The Guggenheim Bilbao

What is not clear is the nature of the collection an Australian Guggenheim would house. It would most likely be a collection of late nineteenth and twentieth century European and American art which is the basis of the Foundation's five present museums. This kind of art  is still scarce in Australia and would be an important and welcome addition. In a country as affluent as Australia there are no scarcity of museums devoted to all possible stages of Australia's short 250 years of cultural history under white occupation and Aboriginal art is also highly regarded and well represented in public institutions.

The major problem against Geelong which the Guggenheim will be considering above all is Australia's isolation from the rest of the world. Spain is Europe's second most visited country attracting only marginally less tourists than France. Whilst Australia's board of tourism has been driving the image of koalas and sweeping landscapes relentlessly for the past decade into the world's consciousness through massive advertising, it still costs an arm and a leg to get there and the plane journey from London or New York is so exhausting that many are not brave enough to try it again.
Then again, Australia is close to Asia and a favourite destination of the art mad Japanese. You can't build a Guggenheim  for Australians alone to enjoy, but a Guggenheim in the Southern Hemisphere for all of Australasia, is a case to be argued for.

           Located on Corio Bay, 75 km south-west of Melbourne, Geelong with a population of 191,000 (1991 Regional pop.) is the largest regional city in Victoria. It is well known for its wool and vehicle    industries and is the centre for the popular Bellarine Peninsula, the scenic Surf Coast and the farming areas to the north and west.
           It is also a very historic town. In 1835 John Batman explored the area before establishing Melbourne at the head of Port Phillip. The rich grazing lands surrounding Geelong (from an aboriginal word meaning "a place of the seabird over white cliffs") attracted large numbers of pastoralists and within a few years of settlement Geelong wool was being despatched to England. Today the superfine wool of Western Victoria is ranked as the best in the world.
          Geelong is known as the 'City by the Bay', and in recent years the city has begun to make  the most of its natural bayside advantages. The long held dream of redeveloping the foreshore on north-facing Corio Bay is rapidly becoming reality, with massive public and private investment transforming Waterfront Geelong into a vibrant focal point for tourists, visitors and residents.
This major revitalisation is also extending to the nearby city heart, while an aggressive marketing campaign is promoting Geelong as a "smart move" for new residents, businesses and investors.