Sunrise visit to shine light on Karratha

Karratha residents will have to get up much earlier than sunrise to see a presenter of the breakfast television show of the same name broadcast from their town, but the early start will be worth it, event organisers say.

The Karratha and Districts Chamber of Commerce and Industry is bringing Channel 7’s Sunrise weather presenter Sam Mac to Karratha next Friday, when he will broadcast his segment live and meet members of the public between 2.30am and 5.45am on the Quarter lawn.

The show will be broadcast live in Sydney, where Sunrise is based, warranting the early start time.

KDCCI events co-ordinator Kim Davies said the visit would provide a rare opportunity to showcase the region across Australia.

“What we’re trying to do is highlight tourism aspects of the region in a unique way, by showing the tourist hotspots in the City of Karratha Australia-wide,” she said.

“We really want to put Karratha back on the map.”

“A lot of people drive past Karratha and don’t come in and we’re trying to encourage people to come back into the region because we’ve got so many tourist opportunities.”

Sunrise crew members will be filming at Sam’s Island, the Dampier Archipelago islands, the Burrup Peninsula and Woodside and Rio Tinto facilities the previous day and showing that footage during the show.

That will be screened to Sunrise’s 300,000 viewers, along with live crosses to Mac, who will be speaking to residents at the venue.

KDCCI events coordinator Kim Davies said it had been a 12 month effort to get the crew of the popular breakfast show to town and it was “quite a coup”.

“We actually tried to get the entire team to come across but they couldn’t make it... so they offered us Sam Mac, the weather presenter, who will give a really unique spin on tourism and resources in the region,” she said.

“The crew that’s coming up hasn’t been to the region before so they’re really excited and looking forward to it.”

Members of the public are encouraged to come and support the live broadcast outside the Quarter on December 15, and there will be prizes for the best signs.

Ms Davies said they had already had a lot of interest, and as an incentive attendees would be able to go home and watch themselves on the televised show from 6am.