How does a country town reverse decline, bring vibrancy to its main street and attract industry, families and skilled labour?
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The changing landscape of cost competitiveness, technology, globalisation and an ever larger city voice over which regional areas have to be heard, seems insurmountable.
However, it might not have to be the case. Rural communities do themselves a great disservice by holding themselves up for comparison against the big cities, says Regional Australia Institute (RAI) chief executive officer, Jack Archer.
This isn’t to say it hasn’t been tough for regional communities, especially with the gravity that has been pulling people to Sydney.
However, a lot of rural regions across the state have grown to the extent that from 2011 to 2016, the population in rural NSW increased by two per cent.
A meagre figure, perhaps, and it does vary from town to town, but it is growth. This data is from RAI research, which used ABS 2016 and 2011 Census data and challenges the “brain drain” thinking that says rural to city migration is sucking the life out of the bush.
While the city pull is real, there are some shining lights out there where people, or even towns, are leading the way in how to curb rural to urban migration.
This is why The Land and Good Fruit and Vegetables will hold a series of forums this year in eight regional locations.
The initiative is called The Next Crop and will bring together the good ideas and successes through the forums and our print and digital publications.
Whether you are on a farm, or a business in a country town, you are part of a community.
The Next Crop forums will be a ‘town hall’ type event where all members of the community are invited to attend to listen to our speakers, as well as join in the discussion about what rural communities can do to help themselves to thrive. The events include free entry.
The speakers at each town have been identified either by The Land or their community as somebody who has brought positive change or ideas to an industry or their town.
The trick, though, is where does a rural community begin to make these changes, especially when facing a lack of interest from our big cities?
Across our forums we will look at how businesses and towns can prepare for the Inland Rail, succession on the farm or in the main street of town, the role of skilled migration, the role of digital technology, how to develop a career from a rural area, as well as issues such as energy, health and education, infrastructure, the future of jobs in agriculture and what rural communities should be doing now to adapt to and take advantage of change.
Locations where you can join a forum include Cooma, March 1; Grenfell, April 5; Armidale, May 3; Griffith, June 7; Moree, July 5; Cobar, August 2; Yass, September 6, and Lismore, October 4.
The event’s gold sponsors include Statewide Sheds, Local Land Services, NSW Farmers and Dow Agro.
Silver sponsors include Elders, Akubra, Kings School, Harbour ISP, Inlon, Ipstar and the Country Womens’ Association of NSW.
- For more information, contact Keiana Cornwall, (02) 4570 4498.