The Community Trust of Southland provided $19,800 for the Mataura Taskforce to engage Mr Wilson, the founder of the Oamaru-based firm Heritage Futures International, to investigate economic development initiatives for the town.
This will be stage one of a proposed development programme.
The work will be carried out by Mr Wilson under the guidance of the Mataura Taskforce, which in turn comes under the umbrella of the Mataura Community Board.
The initiative was designed to turn around the town's local economy, revitalise the Bridge St business district and assist community development generally, Mr Wilson said in his proposal.
Mr Wilson was in the district meeting stakeholders, organisations and individuals, last week.
"My role is all about talking to all the agencies," Mr Wilson said.
So far he had not encountered any negative responses to revitalising Mataura, Mr Wilson said.
"No-one has said `no' - they definitely feel the time is right," he said.
One of the aims was to capture the traffic that passed through Mataura and make the town an attractive place to stop, he said.
"There are thousands of people driving through Mataura's main street - that's a lot of credit cards driving though that aren't being zip-zapped."
"It [the town] deserves to look pristine and not run-down and neglected," he said.
Mr Wilson had no doubt that Mataura could become a vibrant, economically bustling centre, with co-operation from everyone in the community.
This was not the first time Mr Wilson had worked in Mataura - in the early 1990s he had worked with the Mataura Economic Development Company (Medco) on projects, he said.
Mr Wilson has worked in New Zealand and overseas.
He recently worked in Somalia, West Africa and Malaysia.
He said he had helped more than 500 communities identify heritage assets for social, environmental and economic benefits.
