Other strategies focused on improving economic security and social well-being within Geeveston and immediate environs. For example, to combat the economic leakage from Geeveston, a group of 15 Geeveston business people formed the Geeveston Traders in 1989 to promote Geeveston as a commercial centre encouraged residents to shop locally and coordinated advertising and other promotional activities (Huon Valley News, 1st June, 1989). 

The Geeveston Traders later became involved in community events with financial and in-kind assistance from the Esperance Council. It operated for a number of years before becoming an incorporated community development association in 1993, opening up opportunities to access a wider range of funding opportunities offered by State Government agencies. 

The move to incorporate was driven by a key figure in Geeveston, Cr Laurie Dillon. He has lived in Geeveston since 1974 and, with his wife, owns and operates the Geeveston Post Office. Dillon has been a Huon Valley Councillor since 1994, is currently Deputy Mayor, and has been instrumental in driving local actions to manage change in Geeveston.

Membership soon expanded to 23 and included, the 

• Geeveston Supermarket, 

• Conner’s Shoeland, 

• Flair ‘n’ Fabrics, 

• Geeveston Electrical, 

• Geeveston Butchery, 

• Clenn’s Southern Hardware, 

• Snippits Hair Salon, 

• K & A Clark BP Geeveston, 

• W.J.Trevaskis (Chemist), 

• Ganes Food Wizard, 

• Savings Bank of Tasmania, 

• Esperance Video, 

• Geeveston Newsagency, 

• J.B.Nicholas and Son, 

• Southern Chainsaws, 

• New and Near New, 

• Thistle Milk Bar, 

• Corner Pizza Take Away, 

• Shell Geeveston, 

• Westpac Banking Group, 

• Esperance Drapery, 

• P.L. & J.L. Russell Caltex Geeveston, 

• Country Kitchen Bakery 

The number and variety of businesses listed here illustrate the vibrancy of Geeveston at that time. Of these businesses only nine remain today (2010), although new businesses have been established in Geeveston due in part to the work of the GSRG on township beautification and the success of Forestry Tasmania’s tourism venture in the Southern Forests, the Tahune AirWalk, which opened in July 2002. Geeveston provides a gateway to the Tahune AirWalk and many tourists have been stopping in the town on their way to and from this highly successful tourism venture.

For example, Geeveston Community Development Association was awarded $17,000 by the Tasmanian Community Fund in 2005 to build a platypus walk along the banks of the Kermandie River that flows through Heritage Park. Other State programs the Association could access include Arts Tasmania Assistance to Organisations Program, Sport and Recreation Tasmania Grant Programs, and Office of Children and Youth Affairs Grants.

The Geeveston Traders’ metamorphosis into a community association coincided with the declining economic prosperity of the town and the closure of many local businesses which had resulted in the declining relevance of a group consisting entirely of local business owners. In 1993, the Association, led by Dillon, initiated a community project to develop an area of land (at that time owned by the Esperance Council) in the centre of town into what became an award winning development known as Heritage Park.

The building of Heritage Park in the early 1990s provided a catalyst for change in Geeveston, particularly in terms of how Geeveston people represented the value of the township to the local community and how they saw their position in the Huon Valley and more broadly within the Tasmanian geo-political and socio-economic landscape. According to one community leader, critical to this process of (re)constituting aspects of a Geeveston identity were the needs to mobilise large numbers of people to build the park in the first instance and then to assist with running major events in the park (HVCR 03, 2000). Reportedly, 140 volunteers worked together to create Heritage Park (Huon Valley News, 2 March, 1995, p.2) .

Geeveston people were also able to mobilise resources from outside the community. The Geeveston Community Development Association was awarded support from North Forest Products valued at $14,000 as this local timber growing and processing firm provided 500 seedlings and expert advice from its staff (Huon Valley News, 14 July, 1994, p.10).