Bernard Salt AM: Whitsunday on the rise
I am thrilled to have been asked by the Whitsunday Regional Council to speak at an Explore the Future event to be held next Thursday (7 November) at the Proserpine Entertainment Centre. I have been writing about the past, present and future of Australian cities, towns and communities my whole career.
Do this long enough and in enough places across Australia and you develop a view as to what a town needs to be successful. Regardless of local demographics the single most important thing for a community to have, I think, is unity. And the most galvanising force for any community is to know, and to agree with, where it’s headed. This is where leadership and community consultation is important.
I would also add that being optimistic about the future helps a community. Confidence in the future brings and breeds investment, jobs and opportunity. But how does a place plan for the future? I think the best way to approach this is by benchmarking. Whitsunday RC today is a community of about 40,000. This is about the same size as Geraldton in WA (41,000) or Nowra-Bomaderry in NSW (40,000).
If I was on the Council, I would find an excuse to visit these towns because a critical mass of 40,000 residents has a prescribed level of demand for shops, schools, hospitals. I started my career in demographics by doing studies of towns across Australia to work out how much shopping centre floorspace could be added. There are key investment ratios, equations, that will attract investment as the population rises.
In May this year I wrote a feature for The Australian newspaper on Australia’s fastest growing towns. Airlie Beach-Cannonvale came in second with 30 per cent growth over the decade to June 2023. The fastest was Warragul-Drouin outside Melbourne with decade-growth of 44 per cent. Whitsunday’s biggest urban centre Airlie Beach-Cannonvale had a population of about 16,000 at June 2023. I think this community’s rate of growth has accelerated since the pandemic.
Indeed right across Australia there has been a greater demand for lifestyle and regional living in places like Airlie Beach-Cannonvale and Warragul-Drouin. This is partly driven by Millennials streaming out of the capitals in search of affordability and amenity and who are happy, initially, to work remotely. But it is also being driven by baby boomers deciding, after the pandemic, “life’s too short, now is the time to settle up north.”
I am quite sure the Council is on to this, but if ever there was a community that required a big-picture strategic plan looking 20 (or more) years into the future it is Whitsunday. And on this score, I will say I am shocked that there is no university campus or regional university study hub (RUSH) based in any part of the Whitsunday municipality. I will present data next Thursday to show that this community is currently conceding youth, energy and potential workers (and residents) to bigger cities.
In a decade I am sure Airlie Beach-Cannonvale will have a (long-established) uni hub but it will also comprise a community of around 32,000 residents. This is about the same size as Devonport in Tasmania today. I am a big fan of benchmarking your town with bigger towns to see the kind of community yours might become, and to then cherry-pick the bits that you think might ‘do well’ in Whitsunday region. And while down south you might also consider visiting Mt Gambier (pop 31,000) and Warrnambool (36,000) as benchmarks for a sense of what the Whitsundays might look like in 2034.
And while I’m on a roll how about building and/or encouraging local entrepreneurs to invest in new businesses with a business awards program open to everyone (ie not just in tourism). An award to a 28-year old bricklayer, or hairdresser, who starts a business and takes on an apprentice doesn’t just create a new business, it inspires local teenagers. They see someone publicly acknowledged who has started a business locally; this inspires the next generation to remain locally and to eventually create a business.
The Whitsunday region really has it all; climate, lifestyle, airport linkages, agribusiness, mining jobs, hospitality and, being well removed from the state capital, a culture of self-sufficiency. Although, I will say, you really do need that uni campus and I would also toss in expanded TAFE facilities in Bowen and in Cannonvale as the icing on the cake. I’d also have a chat with local businesses to see what trade skills might be fast-tracked through local TAFE colleges.
Come along Thursday and do come up and say hello.
- Bernard Salt AM is founder of The Demographics Group and is a weekly columnist with The Australian newspaper.